Krait book 13C Dark Arts At Durmstrang
by slytherinsal
Summary: Jade Snape is now teaching at Durmstrang, which means that virtually anything can happen as the Durmstrang Marauders face wicked uncles, old attitudes and, well, Dark Arts! apologies that it's been so long. Rated for some nastiness...
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Jade regarded the factor of the Von Strang holdings with dislike.

Martin Scheimig was oleaginous to her but he had the eyes of a bully and he spoke eagerly of how he managed to get maximum rents for minimum outlay.

"Very well, Herr Scheimig, you have presented me with the accounting as I have asked; and now I believe I can dispense with both your services and the two enforcers I apparently employ through you" she said.

Scheimig goggled.

"But Fraulein Von Strang…"

"FRAU Baronin Professor Von Strang und Luytens if you please" said Jade firmly. "I and my husband will administer the estates until such time as I have found someone who suits me better."

"Your father never had any complaints when he was still alive" said Scheimig sulkily.

"As Freiherr Attila Von Strang, whose blood I prefer to forget flows in my veins, looked like a half troll, smelled like a half troll and had as many wits as a half troll I doubt he could even spell the word complaint" said Jade coldly. "I dispense with your services; my husband will see you off my premises. I will collect the next rents myself and undertake an inspection also. You had better hope that your costing of minimum outlay does not include leaving buildings in a dangerous state otherwise you will be subject to a law suit from me to make that good; or alternatively you could try to reach the border before I find out and catch up with you. Good day."

The stern looking man with a scar down the left hand side of his face got up and edged the erstwhile factor out of the room.

"He is efficient enough; why have you fired him, Frau Professor?" said the lawyer, Lothar Schlange.

"Because he enjoys bullying my tenants, Herr Schlange" said Jade "And that is something I abhor. One has noblesse oblige towards one's dependants."

"Most of these scum are but goblins, Baronin" said Schlange.

"Excuse me? And what part of noblesse oblige do you fail to understand? You are of such undistinguished blood that you do not perceive that there is an obligation to all? Perhaps I shall be seeking a new Anwalt to deal with my legal affairs too" said Jade. It was quite fun to be Nefrita Von Strang and all sneeringly hochgeborn at those who were bullies to their underlings; but to sack factor and solicitor both was a bit radical. She needed to have this Schlange kept well under her thumb until she was ready to find a better legal representative. She had a financial advisor already; Ruprecht Schutzmann was happy to come to work independently for a witch who not only did not mind him being civil to goblins but actively encouraged it. He had asked if he might employ Torik the Counter as an assistant, and Jade had every intention of sending Torik to collect rents in the future. After he had calculated how much needed to be spent on making good the buildings she apparently owned now. But she wanted to see for herself; and would take Ruprecht and Torik with her as well as Wulf. And probably Torik's cheeky son Alrik who was capable of finding out a lot, and maybe his friend Fyra who was the daughter of a goblin called Neric.

She had Neric on her pay roll too, in Munich's Koboldstrasse, as an intelligencer and to seek out children deserving of a place in the new school she would be setting up not the coming academic year but the one after.

Ruprecht was personally loyal to her too; his little sister had been Jade's fag and she had confided in him that Nefrita Von Strang was a fiction but that the English wanted to help equality in Germany without embarrassing the German people by pushing in too obviously. He had accepted that enthusiastically; had not the English helped out surreptitiously when Odessa moved in on the German Ministry of Magic, and helped to create a new order with a bit more even-handedness then had ever been done before? And now he might claim Torik as a friend too, and know that his children would be educated, either in the school of Herr Professor Snape whose daughter Jade was, or in the new school that was to be set up. He sat and tried not to sneer openly at the stupid lawyer.

Jade had a few things to do over the holidays – there was to be the ritual to put the ghost of Seth Carter into his cremated bones to be reborn as Seth Dumbledore; and the weddings of the year at Malfoy Manor, where the true heir to the Von Strang property, Erich, was marrying his Tala. Erich wanted nothing to do with the Von Strang inheritance; he preferred to be Erich Snape, oldest adopted son of Severus and Jade's much loved brother. He had a half brother and sister; but Erwin was too busy working as a freelance curse breaker to want to administer properties, and Helga would not leave school until she completed her NEWTs this year. And Jade proposed to make over disposable assets to all the true Von Strangs, even though none of them cared that much.

There were others Jade was fond of who were getting married; Dimsie Burke to Lee Nuffield, Harmony Bloom to Percy Weasley; and Lionel Dell unofficially to his three women, and his cousin Grigs to Cholaka. It was nice to support friends. But she would stay only for the ceremonies; which would not be long after they chanted up a true body for Seth.

And she might visit some properties first.

Jade went first to view the tumbledown cottages that were those of the estate workers on the actual Von Strang estates, who farmed and provided food and basic essentials. Most of the tenants here were low born wizards; and a few goblins. The spirit seemed neighbourly as she observed from a distance, largely because under hardship, they could hardly afford not to be. The cottages were in poor repair.

Jade whistled to a small boy who was driving geese.

He ran over, pulling his forelock.

"Gracious and noble witch, what is your wish?" he asked.

"First tell me your name, small gooseherd" said Jade.

"I am called Hasso son of Anselm, noble one" said the boy.

"Well then Hasso son of Anselm, who must surely be Hassi to shout to in fond exasperation, tell me; are all of this village of the Zaubervolk or do muggles reside also?"

"Well, Gracious Lady, it depends how you will muggles define" said Hasso.

"I would define muggles as those who can do no magic at all" said Jade.

He brightened.

"Then there are in the village no muggles; but there are those, most indeed, who have very mixed blood. Once they do say the village was all muggle but the lords of the castle have used village girls and their blood is in us all therefore that we can all do some; though of course we are not permitted wands."

"Excuse me? Not permitted?"

"The lords have never permitted wands for mudbloods, Gracious Lady, any more than for goblins" said Hasso.

"Well, my lad, that is about to change!" said Jade "Go forth straightway unto every villager, human and goblin, and bid them assemble in the square unless that they be sick or of great eld when their fellows shall bear tidings; tell them that the recently proven Baronin Von Strang und Luytens wishes to address her people."

Hasso almost fell over in shock and bowed very low before dashing off, his geese forgotten.

Jade absently confunded them and herded them together so they should not wander off. Hasso might collect them and lead them from their light compulsion not to wander far without guidance.

She made her way to the village square; and delicately walked up non-existent steps and seated herself demurely in mid air to await her dependants.

They hastened fearfully to bow and curtsey in a display of grovelling that horrified Jade. She used the _sonorous_ charm to ensure her voice be heard by all.

"A simple greeting of courtesy is all I require good people of Strangsdorf" she said. "I am Nefrita Von Strang und Luytens; here too is my husband with our son, your heir" she indicated Wulf with Ralph in his arms. "I come to make myself known to you; and to tell you my plans. First of all, I shall send my new factor, Herr Schutzmann and his assistant Herr Torik amongst you to find out what needs there are in your dwellings; that seem to be many at first glance. The factor previously employed is an inadequate and a bully; and I have fired him. Should he come round here it is my will that you throw him in the pond and send him on his way with good wooden field clogs."

"Excuse, gracious Baronin, but he has a wand" ventured an ageing worthy.

"And as soon as I may I shall send a wand maker to equip you all too" said Jade. "It is as yet the law that only educated goblins may bear wand; but if any goblins on my lands will put in time to study to the level considered acceptable, then they shall too win that right. I purpose to turn the castle into a school; a school for those whose blood is not pure to however many generations Durmstrang demands; and friends of mine from Durmstrang and from England will come to help me teach. This will take some time; and two friends of mine shall oversee the changes. They look like this" and she cast up an illusion of Annett and Mortimer.

"He is part goblin!" someone gasped.

"One quarter" said Jade "His parents were married; such is not unknown in England. Mortimer holds five NEWTs, the equivalent of ZH's; he is well qualified to teach. Naturally I shall give priority to my own people in school; it is my hope that in a generation all the people here will achieve at least a level of a new exam, the ZAP, the Zauberkunst Allegemein Prüfung, which is the equivalent of the English DOE, a general attainment in five subjects to a level a year or so below ZP's. This is the level required for a goblin to hold a wand. ZP's may be taken alongside as well of course; but since the school will not open for a whole year, you are of course more concerned about the state of your roofs and the woodwork of your door and window frames; and I am concerned that I look and see what appear to be outside privies and I have from the map of the village no map of drains. Have you then vanishing charms in your toilets?"

"No Frau Baronin, only earth that we dig out to fertilise the land" said the same aged worthy.

"Hmmph" said Jade "And not so good for the growth as animal manure; though no reason not to place an engulfing charm to pile all ordure, including that shovelled out of byres into a good silo to rot down and mature for better use as fertiliser. That I can see to readily once your cottages are improved. Have you indoor water?"

"No Frau Baronin; we must go to the village pump" said the old man.

"Iniquitous! I knew the old fool thought he was a medieval despot, but I did not know how much!" said Jade angrily "All cottages will have faucets with water summoning spells on them and too a dial to turn for a warming charm. It gets cold here in winter; hot water on tap to wash in is an essential, no point wasting cauldron space on the fire that could have stew on the go. It won't go to boiling – for safety reasons, in case children play with it. You will have to boil water for drinks and cooking as everyone does" she added "Good worthy, how are you called?"

"I am Guthlac the toothless" said the old man.

"Toothless? Come to me" Jade walked down her invisible steps "Open up, Guthlac" she said.

The old man did so obediently. Jade tutted. There were several painful looking rotting stumps.

Jade used a medical vanishing on the rotten teeth and performed a quick transfiguration to his jaw.

He gasped.

"This will be a little painful for a few days; even as it is for a baby for a number of weeks" said Jade "Though I have made the way for your new teeth to come through easier and I have speeded up the growth for I wager you will prefer a higher level of pain for a few days and be able to eat steak by the end of the week than to have nagging discomfort for weeks. You will teeth even as an infant does for a full new set of teeth; the old poisoned stumps I have sent away."

Guthlac knelt and kissed her hands.

"Baronin, now I need not expect to die of starvation, but as you not mind me speaking out, yet will I do if you will it!"

"No need of this kissing my hands!" said Jade "Is it not my duty of care to my tenants? And I am angered to think that you have expected to die for want of a simple medical transfiguration! I am glad someone will tell me like it is; and I thank you! When you all have wands, simple medical spells will I teach; and now I had better move amongst you all and see who else has problems that need healing!"

And then she was moving among them, stopping suddenly by the pregnant woman to lay a hand on her belly and concentrate.

"It does not hurt!" gasped the woman.

"You will not now lose the baby and he should be healthy" said Jade. "Moreover, with good midwifery spells you will be at no risk at the birth as you were before; is anyone here capable of midwifery spells?"

An older woman curtseyed.

"Frau Baronin, I try; but without a wand it is hard" she said.

Jade looked at her in interest.

"What is your name?" she asked "Few of us are capable of casting without wands; I am intrigued by one who has learned to do so on her own."

"I am Mechtilda" said the woman. "I am born of the last two pure muggles; they are dead. HE hunted them. I was young then; just thirteen. I determined that I would not be helpless."

"Quite right Mechtilda" said Jade "The previous Baron was a nasty piece of work; it shames any who bear his blood. But as I suspect at least half the village is in that situation from one degree or another, we declare him an evil that is gone and move on from it. I will have you a wand soonest; I am no expert but as you have bent without breaking I suspect that willow with griffon mane core will do you just nicely. Griffons are notable for their bravery and tenacity. I know the symbolism at least" she added. "I will send a wand maker for everyone but you shall have – no, you shall use my wand in the meantime until one is made for you" she handed it over "To heal as you may. You shall walk with me and I shall be careful to use the incantations that are necessary so you may learn. I am rather good at medical transfigurations; and I rarely need to use a wand. Because I am THAT good" she added. "See this child with the twisted hip? That is simple to do; come little spatzi, let me see thy problem" she said running a hand down the child's body. "Point the wand and say '_Specialis Revelio'_ Mechtilda; that is the revellaspell and it will show you much. See the brown line there that tells you that the little one is malnourished? The hip is twisted, see on that pattern there, because the spine itself is twisted. So you will not heal the hip directly, but by concentrating on the spine and where it meets the pelvis" Jade absently drew out a picture of the child's skeleton in mid air "And here lies the problem. For such, it will hurt the little sparrow less if we make a chant, that also needs not a wand, though a wand may help those unfamiliar with the skill."

Quickly, Jade devised a straightening chant and called upon any who could recall the words and hold the rhythm to chant; and soon the spine straightened and the child stood up taller.

"And you must exercise but not too much, little sparrow" said Jade "Because you must strengthen the muscles. You have learned to run crooked; you must learn to run straight and in a year or less you will run as fast as any of your friends and learn to carry any load you need to also."

Mechtilda was overcome. She had never held a wand before; but she could feel the coursing power in it, knew that with this, when Edhild came to her time she would have no difficulty saving her life!

And Jade passed on amongst the villagers healing what was necessary; standing stock still and gazing at one woman and circling her and chanting with deep concentration until the woman cried out, covered her eyes and then uncovered them again.

"Why – I did not realise that I saw so little!" she cried "And – and my head does not hurt! Oh Frau Baronin!" and she fell to her knees.

Jade heaved her up.

"It was a growth on the brain" she said "BEYOND you, Mechtilda, without serious study; and I would like you to study in the school to be a proper healer for the village if you are willing."

"Oh Baronin! I would give anything for such a chance!" cried Mechtilda.

"Good; now I need to know how many are literate?" asked Jade.

"Why none of us, Baronin: what peasant needs to read?" said old Guthlac.

Jade snorted; placed her hand on his head and transferred full knowledge of how to read and how to teach it to him; and on due consideration did so to Mechtilda too.

"Guthlac, you are the village schoolmaster" said Jade "I will pay you to instruct all children and such adults as wish it for two hours every day; and for the adults, when they might fit in such time as they may. How can I teach them magic when they are of an age to learn if they cannot read?"

"One needs to read to learn to cast spells Gracious Baronin?" asked Guthlac.

"Most certainly; any idiot with a modicum of magic can manage some spells, even as any idiot can cast seeds upon the ground, yet it takes skill to see that they are properly broadcast, on good ground that has been properly prepared, and then guarded from birds and pests, and kept free of weed" said Jade "Any idiot can throw off simple charms, but without study of the reasons behind each spell, it is hard to progress to a higher level, or to invent a spell for a particular task in hand. There are books to be read and the teachers too must read essays their students write to see if the children have understood what they are taught or only nod politely for fear of speaking out. And there will be so many spells to learn, if they are not written down, it is hard to learn them and remember which one to use in any situation; for the learning is intensive. One looks back and says to one's self 'ah, that is a useful spell I shall use it to remind myself how good it is' and then it may become second nature. Chants too often must be written down; the length of words in them is important and designing them carefully is imperative. I have been chanting a long time; mostly in healing magic, so I could easily find a healing chant for both the small one and this woman with the tumour; even as you will glance at the sky and know how long it is until it is going to rain. You scarcely have to think. For a twisted spine, nor hardly do I. For a tumour, that was harder and you must have noticed I had to concentrate. I think I can say without boasting most people would have had to prepare a written chant taking some quarter of an hour or so to calculate. I calculate rapidly in my head."

"If I may say so, my dear" interposed Wulf "Most people even those trained in chanting would not have a clue how to begin healing a tumour; you forget just how experienced you are" he looked at the villagers "The Frau Baronin is probably the most skilled witch you will ever meet as well as just about the cleverest person I have ever met. She WILL protect you all; and I add my word that you would be foolish to play upon her good nature and her shock that you have lived in conditions inappropriate for beings to dwell in. You will all shortly be much more comfortable; take advantage of my wife and you will live to regret it. Prince Gerhardt of Odessa went out of his way to irritate her so she turned him into a pig. It was inappropriate at the time to kill him; she waited until it was appropriate. We were at the battle that overthrew Odessa, and my wife dictated terms concerning fairness to the muggleborn and mixed bloods and goblins. Your freedoms are down to her. Do NOT betray that. I too will take that amiss."

"You are fierce in my protection, dear one" said Jade.

"I saw a few sly expressions that you did not that in your compassion as you looked at those who needed healing" said Wulf simply "I know whose faces they were; and I will watch you. This village will be wealthy ultimately for its growth when it is also a service village for the school; with shops selling school supplies and the sale of treats too to the children. Any who do not work together for the good of all might just find that they do not get to stay to share that prosperity. We shall not have those who try to exploit their fellows, for trading on the Frau Baronin's good nature is theft from the rest of the villagers; do NOT forget that."

There were sudden thoughtful looks on the faces of the villagers; and some swung round to look at – to no surprise to Wulf – those whose expressions he thought sly.

THEY would be dealt with if they tried to go too far!

It was a monumental task; and this was only the least part of what needed to be done with Jade's holdings!

Almost she despaired; but she squared her shoulders. It COULD be done; and with determination it WOULD be done. At least she had addressed health problems; and that had won the hearts of her dependants here to give them incentive to pull together to start with rebuilding projects.

oOoOo

The rebuilding was underway, and Jade had to return to England for the big ceremony.

Myrtle's loo was full of people; more than a hundred blood kindred now, all ready to bleed for the little boy cruelly deceived and bullied into committing suicide for the crime of being a wizard. Among them were Jade's friends from Germany, the blooded she had brought in from those she had met in Durmstrang. Draco also turned up with three extra people; and Jade recognised one as Clovis Gierek, the boy who had moved into being a friend on the edge of her group in Durmstrang, who had helped with the labour pains of a house elf by wearing voluntarily a cursed item Jade had made. The elf beside him – who had now a tall form – looked like the same elf, allowing for being clean and well fed; and she had an infant with her so….

The child had red hair, not the blondish hair of German elves; and looked to be half breed; which he had not been when he had been born.

"I figured," said Draco, "That if Lydia could chant Perceval Filius Harry into being truly Albus' son I could do so with Clovis Gierek junior here."

"I freed Tildi like you suggested" said Clovis to Jade "And brought her to England; and I found out just how badly elves in Durmstrang are treated – nothing but straw to sleep on, a communal room, and raped until pregnant when old enough to have a child. And sometimes used by boys in the school too. I was disgusted; and now she has self respect I can see that elves are not by nature as we see them. And Herr Lucius Malfoy has spoken to me on the futility of racism; so I stand as Vissy's father. She" he blushed "She asked if she might name him after me as I had been kind to her; because masters name babies normally. And – well, I couldn't but take an interest in him when I had taken the birth pangs; so….well, Tildi and I are together now, and Draco thought the blood group would protect her and Vissy when I go back to teach."

"Well!" said Jade "I remember muttering to myself that you were deep; that's remarkable Clovis, and I for one will be GLAD to have you for a brother. Vissy better go to Prince Peak or Hogwarts."

"Give the kid a chance to get a few teeth before you assign him a school, Jadie!" laughed Draco.

oOoOo

The date was the anniversary of Seth's death by suicide. They had but to wait for the time.

"Ready people" said Hermione.

"We have two minutes in hand; must use the loo!" said Krait, diving into a stall.

"Krait! What ARE you like? Couldn't you have gone before you came?" scolded Hermione.

"She's pregnant again" said Jade laconically. "You can't really reckon for when sprogs stick an elbow into your bladder."

"WAY too much information" said Gorbrin.

Sephara and Lynx, also pregnant – more so indeed than Krait – nodded wisely at Jade's words and Hermione sighed. There were sounds of flushing and Krait emerged to wash her hands with a beatific smile.

"Ahhhh, Pisto!" said Jade.

"Flushed with success" added Seagh.

Various people tapped them on the back of the head with two fingers.

And the ceremony went ahead; Severus and Krait presiding over the huge stone cauldron into which all the carefully calculated ingredients went, including the love-given blood from all the blooded to rebuild blood and flesh and bone for the little ghost; and Albus reached in for the final sacrifice of flesh, losing his hand for the life of his new son. Jade was as emotional as anyone; smiling across at Abraxus and Myrtle, for it had been Abraxus who had suggested usurping the particulars of Voldemort's rebirth ceremony for his beloved Myrtle. And her cousin was unashamedly crying and holding Myrtle tight.

And Severus had an ebony had for Albus to replace the one boiled away; and he and his new son must sleep it all off.

oOoOo

And when everyone was recovered there was a big feast for all the group in the Great Hall. The few Durmstrang youngsters, whose visit had been arranged under the guise of a cultural exchange, and the mixed Prince Peak and Hogwarts youngsters were each surprised to find more similarities than differences between them; and part of the cultural exchange seemed to be a giggling exchange of descriptions of secret passages. Zlatko and Zlatka, Xanthe and Xanthippe were busy discussing Marauding with the Belle Marauders – Assim and Darryl having been dragged onto the junior table for that purpose – with a view to doing it all properly. They were learning a sufficiency of complex jinxes, from what little Jade overheard, for her to be certain that next year at Durmstrang, life would NOT be tedious.

And the younger ones were listening avidly.

"When are we going to establish Marauding in Beauxbatons?" demanded Lilith loudly.

"If it becomes necessary" said Jade "And not until. Now then! Better to establish Marauding in the free school; and when it's been going long enough I expect Mortimer will go back as an old boy and lecture on how to be a flaming nuisance and solve the world's problems and kill dark wizards in your spare time."

Mortimer grinned lazily.

"Oh I'm too busy chatting up Anett" he said. "She and I are going to be teaching school together with Jade and Wulf some day so I might as well chase down the best girl in the world before she finds another live one."

Anett flushed but looked pleased.

"Well, I'm afraid I rather hoped you'd be feeling that way" she said "Because when Von Frettchen proposed to me I told him I already had a boyfriend and that my boyfriend was actually in the same age range as me, not old enough to be my grandfather."

"It'd have been a precocious pair of ancestors to make him your grandfather" said Jade, judiciously "He's forty something. Which would have been fine if you loved him but otherwise is a bit gross."

"Am I your boyfriend?" asked Mortimer.

"Well I should hope so as I've claimed you" giggled Anett "And Von Frettchen all put out because I prefer a part goblin nobody to a duke, ass that he is."

"He doesn't realise that you are discerning, intelligent, and with er, deucedly good taste" said Mortimer, trying to sound like Hawke.

"He doesn't understand, really, how love works, poor fool" said Jade. "One day he'll fall in love and it'll probably be the making of him."

"How many times does that make Lucius made then?" said Lynx.

"Well he's still short a dozen wives or so" quipped Jade.

"I'll bite" said Lynx.

"It'll be awful" warned Fabian.

"But funny" added Senagra "Go on Jade; short a dozen wives?"

"Yes; he needs sixteen" said Jade "Four richer, four poorer, four better and four worse."

Groans preceded bread rolls being thrown at her and the juniors declared virtuously that it was the grown ups having a food fight, not them!

oOoOo

Jade was delighted that the ceremony had worked; she had had every expectation that it would, especially now the bloodgroup was so large; but it was always nice when things went according to schedule.

She spoke privately to Clovis and asked him how he was finding helping Draco; and Clovis answered with enthusiasm. Had he not been doing so well Jade would have suggested he help out Mortimer and Anett but he seemed to have struck up a real friendship with Draco and Harry.

"I also went briefly home to talk to my dad" said Clovis "And he was a bit shocked at first but he and mum ignored convention to wed because dad is Polish and ran away with a German heiress; so he was amenable to me telling him I had to be true to myself. He is interested to see how well elves may adapt to being free so he is to visit England now there are less travel restrictions. It is a relief to know I can always go home if I need to; I would have to choose my wife and child over my father if it came to that."

"Of course" said Jade "And it is good when there is even cautious understanding. So many people are casually racist, believing the stereotypes because they have no other exemplar to replace them; and so often the stereotypes are reinforced by learned behaviour. I'm not sure how well some of the wizards and witches ineligible for Durmstrang but not actually muggleborn are going to adapt to any half goblins; in Germany from what I understand, half breeds only really happen as a result of the using of a goblin prostitute by a wizard who can't afford a human prostitute. There are those half breeds who look less goblin I think who marry humans and give rise to quarter bloods and less like Mortimer; who may even look more goblin than their half-bred parent. But as low born humans and pure bred goblins have few to look down on, I fear that there will be some racial tensions if we have any part-bred."

"I suppose you'll just have to explain firmly that people are people the way Draco did for me" said Clovis. "He helped me out a lot, and Mr Malfoy too, over coming to terms for feeling protective and then more than protective towards Tildi."

"You done good, brother" said Jade.

oOoOo

And then there were the weddings; and it rained at first, but not as long as it rained on a gatecrasher whom Gorbrin jinxed to have her own thundercloud.

And the weather did not matter; Jade's friends and bloodkin were all so deliriously happy no idiots who made disapproving noises about anything – as some did – could spoil it.

And Jade herself dropped the odd jinx for spiteful comments about Lucius hosting a wedding for the daughter of a jailbird like Dimsie, or about Lionel's excess of women, and how one of them and the bride of his cousin were goblins!

Jade, in common with sundry of her younger siblings and Lucius' assorted offspring was out to make sure that no ill natured comments spoiled the day of those they loved; and if Molly Weasley disapproved in principle she still laughed when Jade told her that she had made Anne McMillan Diggory's farts fluoresce and flow more or less continuously for making a poisonously sweet query to Percy about being the first of his brothers to marry an actual witch not a foreign fey, mudblood or goblin.

Molly was very protective of her sons; and her daughters in law, and was indignant on Fleur's and Hermione's behalf as well as Garjala!

And then Jade was off back to Germany to see how dire her city apartment blocks and businesses were.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Jade had to consider which of her properties to visit next. There were three places – broadly speaking – to visit; Berlin, where she owned two apartment blocks in a poor human neighbourhood, in a close with muggle repelling spells on it; six blocks in the goblin occupied street that opened off the Kesselsrasse; and indeed she owned six small houses in a cul-de-sac of housing that opened off the Kesselstrasse too. Then there were the properties in Neubrandenburg – the 'new' part of the name being somewhat relative as the town had been built in the thirteenth century under the ambitions of some Duke of Brandenburg when Germany was a collection of little independent countries and duchies. Neubrandenburg still had all its city walls; partially maintained by the use magical folk put them too as boundaries into wizarding space, though there was not so large a community as could use almost two miles of walls. Even so the wizarding community was well developed and Jade found she owned two streets of poor housing, one in the human sector and one in the goblin community. Really this apartheid was going to have to be eroded; though even so, there were still definite goblin areas in England, even if there were less where goblins were NOT welcome. The goblin street here was housing for the workers and their families of a tannery that Jade also owned; well, there had always been good reasons to segregate tanners. She would have to introduce more modern and less smelly methods of tanning no doubt. She also owned most of the houses and shops on one side of a street in the town's commercial centre, including another business that was owned by the Von Strang family. They were an Anwalt firm, legal advice; though her own Anwalt, Lothar Schlange – HOW she did not like him – had told her smugly that they could not be counted as proper Anwalten since though they dispensed advice and could be hired as advocates at law, most of their business involved writing letters for illiterates and researching family trees for those hoping to be free of the laws that taxed heavily those of less than six generations pure blood. Jade hoped to find one at least who might be trained up to take Herr Schalnge's place as her family lawyer.

The final place where she held property was a small goblin community in the Dre Mountain foothills; it was a mining village called, unoriginally, Kobboldsheim. It appeared that she owned the whole village, mine and all; one of the greatest sources of the Von Strang wealth in the past at least, even if the workings were less rich these days. And wise enough for one of the family to invest in property too. Probably the mining village would wait; Berlin first to see to apartment blocks. Apartment blocks could become very dire. Jade shuddered. It was a very continental thing to be content to live in apartments, even quite wealthy people; as an essentially English girl Jade hated the idea. Any English person in a flat would aspire to a little house as preferable, save those strange people who liked city living perhaps. And in an English apartment block, one was careful to avert the eyes from other occupants and to avoid talking to them, lest one be accused of invading their personal space; whereas continental apartment dwellers knew everything about their neighbours – and expected to do so. It was quite extraordinary!

oOoOo

It seemed sensible to split forces as it were; Jade would like to see all for herself ultimately, but Wulf might check out some of the buildings adequately. He would go with Ruprecht and Torik; and Jade borrowed Hunnic and Walther from Prince Peak. She did hope to steal them as groundsmen for her new school ultimately as well; and both were studying hard towards the new ZAP, so that Hunnic might be permitted a wand; and Walther just because he wanted the education his low birth had always denied him.

Wulf was to look at the apartment block in the unimaginatively named Neugasse, 'New Lane' as one might translate it, the most recent expansions being to the 'Grindelwald Platz' at the end of it. And suggestive that nobody had ever changed the name of that. Jade had placed a petition before the new German Council that the name could be a little less contentious and still commemorate an ideal if it were changed to say, Siegfried Platz. She would go with her cohorts to Schattenstrasse, where the other human occupied apartment block was, and too six small houses that might also be shops. Jade was a little unsure exactly what they were; they paid rent and the unspeakable Scheimig had seemed to think that was all she needed to know.

They walked down the Nikolaiviertel towards the bare few yards remaining of Berlin's city wall; checked for muggles; and walked boldly through the wall into that Hans Christian Anderson world that was the Kesselstrasse.

The Neugasse was on the left, opening unobtrusively between two shops and narrow enough at its entrance to overlook its presence as anything but a passage to the back of the houses and shops that overhung the street in fantastical medieval cantilevered timber framing. Jade went in just to have a quick look; the lane opened up quite quickly to give a bit of space and the apartments were the typical continental stone apartment blocks with balconies; the two one encountered first, just inside the lane, looked to be original with the Kesselstrasse, being built of brick with decorative coloured brickwork patterns and brightly coloured tiles; and they were plainly the province of the more prosperous. There were three apartments on each side the lane itself, and the other four were also not bad in quality. Those built around the square of the Grindelwald Platz were decidedly less good quality and Jade wondered if the name of the Platz had been chosen to depress the pretensions of those who had less than pure blood. It would be like the German authorities to consider that funny. Her block was opposite and to the left as one looked across the platz out of the lane; and she pulled a face.

"We'll sort things out love" said Wulf.

She stood on tiptoes to kiss him; and left him to it.

Kesselstrasse carried on straight for a way, then turned round back on itself, whilst the Goblinstrasse peeled off to the left; and Wulf and Jade would join forces for examining property there. Jade consulted her map and took the narrow lane on her right, the appropriately named Zwischengasse, the 'Between Lane'. This ran through to meet up with where the Kesselstrasse bent back on itself, looking on the map rather like a duodenum, thought Jade whimsically. Where the Zwischengasse met the looped over part of the Kesselstrasse the main thoroughfare narrowed and became Schattenstrasse, where the overhanging upper storeys of the houses were indeed close enough to make calling it 'Shadow Street' quite appropriate. There were mixed houses, many of them with shop frontages, and apartments tucked down here; and the apartment blocks generally had stone lower floors with timber framed overhanging upper floors above them. All the far side of the Schattenstrasse were little houses and shops, jammed close together, and with the leaning timber framed buildings that seemed to be what might be holding them up, rather like some of the more crooked houses in the English town of Lavenham, that had nonetheless leaned drunkenly without any apparent desire to fall over for five hundred or more years. DEFINITELY one expected some of the grimmer denizens of the tales of the Brothers Grimm to leap out from here.

Instead there appeared to be a possible lynching going on.

"Ooer" said Walther.

"WHAT is the meaning of this?" Jade used _sonorous_ to carry her voice in its best schoolmarm manner.

She also used voice control to get their attention.

She had it.

"Gracious lady, it's like this" said one of the lynch party "It be Herr and Frau Keuleschnitter; because it is said that they have been poisoning us by putting muggles in their meat pies."

"Sounds a little unlikely to me" said Jade cynically "However, you cannot take matters into your own hands; if they are indeed guilty it is a matter for the Vehmgerichten. However, to determine guilt or innocence is but of the easiest; I am a legilimens and I shall soon see if your accusations have any truth. Bring forward the pie maker and his wife."

The man and woman were thrust forward; a fat pair such as must have sampled their own wares. They made good stuff then; one should never trust a thin baker! The woman had rather mean looking eyes, but the terrified man looked as though his normal expression should have been affable. Jade stared into each pair of eyes in turn.

"We've done nothing, Gnadige Fraulein!" cried the man.

"Indeed this pair have never even considered using muggles in their pies" said Jade "Though if I were the good people of this neighbourhood, when it is Frau Keuleschnitter who hands you your change, you should count it carefully; she is not so scrupulous as her good husband who is an honest man."

"Haven't I always said so?" cried one hausfrau. "Thank you Gracious Lady."

"Where then has this rumour arisen?" demanded Jade.

"I put it about in revenge" said a young man a few years older than Jade "I am a squib, gracious lady; and the pie-woman said that I would be more use to the community if I were cut up and put in one of her pies. I did not mean it to go so far; but they will not listen to a squib. I just wanted to give HER some discomfort as she has hurt my mother by always making mean comments about me."

"Oh don't listen to him, he's a half wit like all squibs" said another.

Jade turned round on that one.

"Oh? You measure wit by magical ability? I suppose you also think muggles are half wits?"

"Of course" said the man smirking "Everyone knows that."

"If you believe that, it is you who are the half wit" said Jade quietly "Muggles and squibs have the same range of intelligence as any of us; it is independent to magical talent. Gerhardt Grindelwald had a huge amount of magical power and was as stupid as a stump; I know. I met him. Several times. The last time was when I killed him at the battle for the ministry. Magic is a talent independent of intellect; and if we all measure by our own talent then I should call stupid and half wit anyone who cannot read music or play an instrument."

"Heh, that would make me more intelligent than you, Herr Fluch" said the young squib "For I read music and I play the whistle."

Most of the crowd were digesting in some fear that Jade had killed Prince Gerhardt. They looked on her warily.

Jade conjured a pennywhistle out of mid air and tossed it to him, and then did the same with a sheet of music. The crowd were impressed and Jade heard whispers that she did not even use her wand, the way the diabolical English were rumoured not to use wands!

"Play" said Jade.

"A moment if I may" said the youth "This piece is not familiar to me."

"It will not be" said Jade "It was only written a few weeks ago."

The squib lifted the whistle to his lips and played the jaunty tune that was one of Silvina's pieces; what she referred to as 'twiddles' that would one day feature in a greater work.

He was good.

"How would you like a job teaching magical children the rudiments of music?" said Jade "And we shall see if there is enough magic in you to use magical tunes too; I don't believe I've ever met a total squib. Many can manage to at least brew potions or use the floo network with a little help; some can even use a few grooming and cleaning spells with a good wand and a lot of coaching."

He stared; then knelt to kiss her hands.

"DON'T do that" said Jade. "I am Baronin Professor Nefrita Von Strang und Luytens; and though it is not ready yet, I shall be starting a new school next year for those ineligible for Durmstrang; it will be a subsidised school. I could do with a junior music teacher to get the pupils to a level where my highly trained magical music and chanting professor will no longer wish to strangle them – and indeed to pick out the talented for him. I will place you on a retainer until I am ready for your services and Volodya Potishev will come and speak with you. What is your name?"

"I am Helmut Hastläufer" said the young man "My mother, Ameise Hastläufer is Hausmeisterin of the apartment block on the corner."

"Ah? That is a fortunate coincidence; it is one of the properties I discover I now own" said Jade "I can speak with your mother and inspect the building. I own also six of these properties here, and I believe the pie shop is one of them. I and my men here will listen to any needs of repair that you may have in order that it should be made good; since I have not long proved my claim to the property and must needs make good the neglect that my erstwhile factor has believed was a good way of saving money."

"He's a nasty piece of work" spoke up another woman.

"So thought I" said Jade "You are?"

"I am Frau Schürnagel and my husband is a tailor" said the woman "Though down here most of what we do is alterations and running up ready mades. We also sell secondhand clothes."

"If I give you a loan to get the fabric will you be able to make uniform for the new school?" said Jade "I have not yet fully designed them but I was thinking of gentian blue as a basis."

This was a purely Chalet School reference; even as the original Chalet School had worn brown and flame that they had adopted at Prince Peak, so the Chalet School that had re-formed in Switzerland had worn gentian blue. It somehow seemed appropriate.

"Fraulein Baronin we would be delighted; though I may have to source some sewing to goblins" said Frau Schürnagel, glancing warily at Jade.

"Oh that would be most suitable; as goblins will also be attending the school" said Jade heartily "The English system has proved that there is no deficiency in the intellect of goblins and no Englishman of quality would be without a goblin financial advisor any more than he would be without a goblin cursebreaker. They have a talent with Arithmancy; as indeed do some squibs who work with the highly talented but less clever as cursebreakers" said Jade, making the dig. If Frau Schürnagel was willing to employ goblins she was less prejudiced than some; for there had been a wave of shock that ran through the listeners.

"I wouldn't send my children to no school with filthy kobbolds" said one woman.

"Oh I assure you all children of either race would be encouraged firmly to wash and not be filthy" said Jade, wilfully misunderstanding "But if any do not wish mixed race education, why, that is their loss is it not, in not gaining the qualifications that will give them better jobs. I will not take any racists – human OR goblin. I despise racists; they show themselves up to be so limited in intellect and unable to accept truth because they can't even spell the word. We are inter-fertile because we all descend from a common root; and anyone who would deny that is ignorant and stupid both, and SO out of touch with the modern world. And I refuse to have the wilfully ignorant in my school; so if you're racist, tough luck, you can carry on wallowing in your nasty little mire of inutile imbecility and end up being the dregs of society because the ones with vision will get on; and I don't really care that much. Such obsolete ideas are out of place nowadays."

"What about halfbreeds?" asked Frau Schürnagel.

"What about halfbreeds? Are they not people also?" said Jade "In my school will be a professor whose mother was half goblin; he is a most intelligent young man with five 'O' grade ZH equivalents from one of the English schools. He is to wed a German girl who is, as it happens, a pure bred witch; Durmstrang's champion at the last Triwizard. She is a friend of mine; and as he was a contender from Hogwarts, that is where she met him. She too has five ZH's; because she couldn't browbeat Madam Bacsó half so well as I managed; nor did she think to sit in on lessons without bothering to ask permission like I did."

"How many then ZH's do you have, Fraulein Baronin?" asked the tailor's wife respectfully.

"Seven" said Jade "And incidentally it's Frau; I am married. My husband will be headmaster so I may teach, which I love. I teach this year at Durmstrang; because my family castle needs much making over to turn it into a school. I shall be looking too for pupils to start; and at first all will be at the same level. I shall too be looking for teachers in the community to make sure that those who wish to come have attained a basic level of literacy; enough that I may test. I will not be able to take all; though eagerness to learn may overcome many problems of low talent. I purpose to train towards making some of the first youths that come to me into teachers to set up local schools to teach at least the five core subjects for the new ZAP, the Zauberkunst Allgemein Prüfung. Now! Let me see your houses that I may check wherein needs may be; and I shall then to the apartment block also come."

To many she had offered the dream of education with one hand and snatched it away with the other that they would not wish their offspring to share with goblins; but that was their problem. Either they would have to overcome their bred in racism and move forward into the modern world or go without education.

The houses, being timber framed, had fewer problems than some; in so far as it was a resilient and lasting building material that had few problems so long as dry rot or woodworm did not set in; and any half competent witch or wizard ought to be able to deal with such pests.

It was amazing how many people did NOT seem to be competent; and Jade ticked off the pie maker and his wife for opening themselves to a law suit from their neighbours for leaving dry rot to run unchecked in the attic. She dealt with the problem and told Hunnic to note that a new beam was required in the roof. Next door one side was the tailor; on the other, the house did not belong to her.

She called anyway.

"The pie makers had dry rot that they had not dealt with; I am prepared to make it good if it has spread to your roof since they appear to have no magical skill AND to be stupid" she said. This was the man who had called squibs and muggles stupid, Herr Fluch.

He scowled.

"I however am neither stupid nor bereft of ability, Frau Baronin; and I have dealt with the problem in MY beams and I have already complained to the Keuleschitters about it."

"Then I shall not be giving them any rent concessions as they had been warned of the problem; would you have told them the incantation to use if they had asked?"

"I would" said Fluch "I would not want the problem back."

"Then they are in fault over that" said Jade. "Dear me! It seems a school is long overdue since there are so many strange preconceived ideas and failure to perform even the most simple charms!"

"Tell my, Frau Baronin, how many squibs do you know that you speak so confidently of their intellect? And how many muggles?" it was not quite a jeer at her belief, that he expected to be based on nothing more than moonshine.

"Goodness!" said Jade "I know one squib who was no such thing and does not count; for she was but a late developer and ended up with four ZH equivalents; and besides her, let me see, four off hand. The English have a school especially for squibs and those siblings of the muggleborn who have not inherited the inherent talent in the whole population; it is an accident of birth whether heritance from randy wizards of generations before should emerge. As for muggles….. I would say I know more than a hundred muggles, some relatives of wizarding folk, others just those amongst whom we live…. They are just people, some clever, some stupid, some pleasant some downright nasty. The muggle world has examinations that are approximately equal in complexity to ours in their subjects; some similar – Arithmancy and muggle Mathematics are virtually identical in many particulars though applied in very different ways of course, though the bases are in many respects the same whether you are designing wizarding space or making a vehicle to travel to the moon; other skills very different, though transfigurations and muggle physics have principles in common, which is to say that there is a constant amount of energy in the universe and that is always preserved. I could get technical in that comparison since I have an understanding of the muggle subject as well as being a rather skilled transfigurationist but I fear I would lose you. I tend to lose all but the best I'm afraid, because I take transfiguration seriously. There are parallels too between muggle chemistry and potioneering; and I understand that the English schools have had some success in improving potioneering skills by the teaching of some muggle chemistry alongside it to low talent pupils; squibs find it particularly helpful I understand. And their history sometimes gives insights into our own; especially when there are politicians who would wish to suppress our own history. Like claiming that Odessa was a fiction; Gellert Grindelwald did not underestimate muggles, and he rode on the mysticism of a muggle organisation with the same name, whose members he planned to use as his cohorts in subjecting muggles to his rule. He DID underestimate the English will. I see you wanting to believe the comfortable lie, Herr Fluch; but if you exchange some of your money for muggle Euros and buy some muggle newspapers out in the muggle streets then you will see that some papers are sensationalist and appeal to the lowest common denominator and some are serious and aimed at the intellectual. If muggles were halfwits, would they have newspapers with a wide vocabulary and schools for all their children? ALL their children, Herr Fluch; we are backward in the extreme beside muggles whose state education covers all children. Whose state healthcare covers all citizens. Whose state pension benefits care for all their elderly. Do you still have a job now you age, Herr Fluch? And if so, how much longer will you be able to work?"

He shrugged.

"I am a clerk at the bank; I can work a few more years; and I am fortunate to own my house and will, if necessary, take lodgers to feed me when the bank dispenses with my services."

"Consider if you will the possibility of teaching literacy and numeracy for me to human and goblin children for the magical school" said Jade.

"Oh I've nothing against goblins; I work with too many to fail to realise they have no more and no less vices than all the rest of the community" said Fluch "I find it disturbing that muggles should be sentient; what if they find out about us? There are a very great many of them in the city!"

"There are indeed; something over eighty million in all of Germany" said Jade "And that is why we MUST respect their abilities the better to remain hidden from them; and support and be friendly with the muggle relatives of the muggleborn who can then report to us if they think anyone has any suspicions of our presence and help to laugh at the idea of magic. Muggles are potentially very dangerous and you are wise to be concerned. But the Statute of Secrecy is in place in order to protect us; and it is often better to subvert those who see than to merely tinker with their memories."

"Well I'm not so sure about that" growled Fluch. "That boy Helmut seems not to be all there though."

Jade laughed.

"Those of us who are musical frequently get shouted at for seeming not all there" she said "He is a talented musician to sight read a new piece so ably; I think he is intelligent, but a little inclined to dream. Would not you, if you were by comparison to those around you considered unfortunate and disabled? It is easier to retreat into a little world of music all your own than listen to pitying or ill-natured comments from your neighbours."

He grunted; but it was a start.

oOoOo

There was little enough needing to be done in the other buildings save that all needed replastering inside and out and a few minor repairs. That could be easily left in Ruprecht's able hands to find craftsmen to do as was required.

Jade turned herself to the apartment block; and Helmut eagerly introduced her to his mother, Frau Hastläufer. She was a small, bustling woman, who gave the impression of never being still. Jade was familiar with the concept of a concierge from having read Maigret books; it was a good way of brushing up French to read them in the original. And the German word was Hausmeister, made Hausmeisterin for the feminine. This Hausmeisterin would fit into a Maigret book well enough, likely knew everything about the other tenants and would do what she could to avoid trouble from the authorities.

She had a small baby slung on her hip.

"Your son's child, or a sibling to him?" Jade asked politely.

She snorted.

"No, he is the child of one of the tenants; and you, Frau Baronin, at least will not require the additional rent to blink at the double occupancy of two girls each sharing one apartment" she said.

"Additional…. He expects her to lay with him?" Jade was shocked "For sharing with another girl?"

"There are four girls in the top two apartments; they make no trouble" said Frau Hastläufer "And they have to earn somehow, don't they?"

"Ah, they are prostitutes? Very sensible of them to share. How many apartments are there in this block and how many rooms does each have?"

"There are two on each floor; that's eight apartments, and mine is one of them. They have each three rooms and a toilet and besides my apartment there is a shared kitchen downstairs that I supervise. Many of them have a cauldron to put on their own fires" she said. "I don't take a cut from the girls on the fourth; I'm no madam."

"And if I recall the law correctly they do not have to pay the tax for being a brothel while there are no more than two in any one occupancy; if they are no trouble and you have no problem with the clients, I see no difficulty. Is your son a good bouncer?"

"He is that, Frau Baronin; though I'm not sure what to do if he is to go with you as a professor of music. My Helmut!" the woman was overcome with pride; she would pay off many old scores with that. Jade could do no wrong for her!

"I'd like to test him to see if he couldn't learn some minimal magic; only I loaned my wand to the midwife in the castle's village because the old fool who was the previous baron would not let his villagers hold wand" said Jade "Fortunately my studies long since took me beyond needing one; but it means Helmut will have to wait for me to test him out."

"Frau Baronin, I never expected…." Frau Hastläufer stuttered "You are too kind!"

"I know how cruel some fools are to squibs and their kin" said Jade grimly "Lucius Malfoy removed a squib from her mother – his sister as it happens – and with care and love she managed to develop late into a quite adequate witch. It does not always happen; but people are ever ready to write off squibs."

"Alas, I did not write off my son, but he never developed any ability" said Frau Hastläufer "And whether it was trauma over his father dying or just a lack, I could never gain a spark from him!"

"Trauma can have a profound effect" said Jade "I will contact those who have helped squibs develop such as they might; it is possible he may be able to learn a little alongside his teaching duties; or he may not. Helmut, I mean not to talk over you; I apologise."

"Gnadige Baronin, you are the first person who has ever spoken to me like a person besides my mother and who has EVER apologised or even noticed talking over me!" said Helmut.

Jade sniffed.

"Well, my views on the moronic idiocy of nine people out of ten are well documented" she said. "Frau Hastläufer, apart from the behaviour of my erstwhile factor, is there anything you would like to bring to my attention?"

"There are some problems with the drains, Frau Baronin, and a couple of places where the girls on the top floor need buckets to catch the rain; and a lot of very bad plaster" said the Hausmeisterin.

"Show them to me; the drains first. I may be able to unblock them" said Jade "I'm fair to middling with watery charms. It ain't all water, but the charms work nonetheless; and maybe I will need to brew a potion. That I AM good at" she added.

The drains smelled; and the lavatory pan had rather evil coloured fluid in it.

"That smells like decomp gasses to me" said Jade "A dead rat perhaps; I need to see the inspection panel."

It was in the yard; and Jade removed her outer robe glad she had on muggle jeans underneath. She descended, to the protests of the Hausmeisterin who seemed to think it beneath the dignity of a Baronin. It probably was; but Jade was the sort of person who believed in taking things personally.

She emerged looking rather white.

"Did any of the top floor girls have a stillbirth?" she asked. "I need a box….human remains should have a decent burial."

Frau Hastläufer gasped.

"Not that I know…. Helmut, a box!"

Jade descended again and re-emerged with a tiny, decomposed body in a box. She cast several cleaning spells and pointed her wand at the tiny body.

"Ah; as I thought" she said quietly "Half goblin; and now I have the child out, I see her brains have been dashed out. This is murder, Frau Hastläufer."

"I – I think I know what has happened here" said Frau Hastläufer quietly "It is Gretchen's I think. She lives with her parents and brother on the second level; she is fifteen. She was much upset; said she had been raped when she was out, and has not gone out much since. Who can blame her father for killing what had made her so distressed?"

"Anyone who thinks the child would have suffered less trauma for being given an abortifacient potion to kill a foetus rather than make her go through the pain of birth" said Jade grimly.

"But if he bought an abortifacient it would shame the family!" said Frau Hastläufer.

"Madam" said Jade "I think nothing much to a man who prefers to avoid shame at the cost to his daughter of pain, risk of death and the mental trauma of having the baby she has laboured so hard to birth killed in so violent a manner. Poor child! He sounds of the most limited, this father."

"He is" said Helmut.

"Well, you may assure the family that I will see the rapist found and punished" said Jade "And the girl and her limited father will have to deal with more shame when the Vehmgerichten turn up; because this is NOT something I am going to leave. I will have my new factor look into the other damage that needs making good; and he will not extract extra rent in kind. I will inform him that so long as they abide by the law I have no objection to the whores on the top floor. And incidentally, with Helmut's wages you will easily be able to afford a bouncer; I – I must away to the Rathaus."

oOoOo

A Frau Baronin had an immediate and sympathetic hearing; and Jade stressed that the sequence of events was but guesswork on the part of her Hausmeisterin.

She also handed over pages on which she had placed the Malfoy lines of the heritance from the goblin father.

"This is an extraordinary thing, Frau Baronin!" said the Vehmgericht to whom she spoke.

"What, is it so new to Germany that you think it strange to see a private person lay out Malfoy lines?" said Jade surprised.

"I have never seen any way to thus display the heritance by revellaspell!" said he.

Jade sighed and proceeded to teach him the incantations, having to explain once again that she had loaned out her wand. The German bureaucracy ground exceeding small but it also ground most slowly!

However, this at least was an advance that could now benefit the crime fighters of the German wizarding world; and maybe it would have reached all vehmgerichten by the time she died of old age.

Jade went to meet up with Wulf.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"Nothing very exciting to report" said Wulf "I think it will be easy enough to make good the neglect; much of it was from the laziness of that blasted factor; and his greed. Demanded bribes to get obvious and desperate work done; and prosecuted or just turned out anyone who went ahead and had work done without consulting him. They were not exactly left in opulence under Attila Von Strang, but he did know the meaning of efficiency in terms of keeping up those buildings you mean to rent out. It's gone down really only in the last ten years or so since he's been dead."

"Eleven if I calculate properly" said Jade "Now coming up to, anyway. It was the year before Voldemort was bumped off; and it's the tenth anniversary come Easter and dad muttering that he's dead and buried and why not just leave it that way."

Wulf laughed.

"Your father is a very modest man for one of so much greatness" he said. "Any trouble?"

"Only some" said Jade, quickly filling in what she had found out. "I was glad of Hunnic and Walther scowling constructively at people; I'm not universally popular though there are those who I think are not unhappy with me. And I HAD to drop a dead baby into official laps; a rapist MUST be stopped. I don't care what his race is. And so I told the Vehmgericht. I think that confused him" she added. "I suspect under the circumstances the girl's father will get off with a slapped wrist; and I could wish that was because he acted in emotion for his daughter's distress rather than because the baby will be seen as an abomination. Well, on to goblin land; and see how many more teenage goblin girls got screwed by humans without anyone taking a profound amount of notice of it."

"Of course the culprit may have done it in revenge for a wife or daughter" said Wulf.

"And picking on a random girl, or even were she the innocent daughter of a culprit there is no excuse" said Jade "She was fourteen; there is never an excuse for child molesting. The same age as Silvina" she added "And hardly older than Irmi was when first she escaped to us."

Wulf nodded. His lovely wife was right; even in mitigating circumstances, nothing was that mitigating.

oOoOo

Bearing left at the end of the straight part of the Kesselstrasse took them into the narrow lane of the Kobboldstrasse. The apartments at this end were lower – three stories – and with more windows than those as they progressed down , where five and six storeys were not uncommon and the general state of repair was rather poor. There was a bierhall that looked to be goblin only, just within the lane, with a few tables outside where goblins sat covertly watching the main street; here was one goblin flanked by a pair of beefy looking goblins who was better dressed in a rather flashy sort of way; Jade equated him with Kordach, one time goblin crime lord, until she saw his cold, hard, calculating eyes. Kordach was shrewd; this one was as cruel and as much a bully as Scheimig. More like Al Capone than a genial Godfather. He was talking to an obvious bookie.

Another better dressed goblin came out of an apartment; his garb proclaimed him to be a bank clerk, since Germans like uniforms for everything; and he was busy shouldering other goblins aside; including Torik who had gone ahead.

"Don't push me" said Torik.

"Why should I not? I don't even KNOW you, nobody!" said the clerk "I am an important man!"

Jade noted the derision in the crime lord's eyes as he watched from his seat, black eyes glittering in malice.

"I however, now know YOU" said Torik.

Jade stepped forward.

"Is this fellow causing you trouble, Torik?" she asked.

"I don't believe he really wants to" said Torik.

The clerk's mouth dropped; and he grovelled almost to the ground in his bow.

"Noble witch! Excuse me for being in your way! And for disturbing your worthy hireling!" he said hastily.

"On one condition" said Jade meditatively.

"Name it, Noble Witch!" he cried.

"Try to be more courteous to your own neighbours in future" said Jade coolly. "After all, if anything happens that means you lose your position, how much nicer it will be to know that your neighbours look on you with friendliness instead of wishing to point and giggle at a pompous man fallen. No, I do not intend to threaten your position; but one should never rely on anything, except death and taxes. And love. Great force, love; you could cultivate it with neighbourliness. Good day to you" and she swept on.

"I doubt he really understood that as anything but a threat" said Wulf.

"Possibly not; but I have to try" said Jade.

oOoOo

There were two blocks that she owned on the right, as the street started to curve back on itself; two on the other side a little further on; a large one at the end, and another down a narrow path off the street behind the others and between them and the Kesselstrasse. The apartments of the Grindelwald Platz and the far end of the Kobboldstrasse were next to each other; and had blank walls on the sides that looked towards the apartments of the other race, and a wall built between them.

When the goblin woman – no more than a girl – came stumbling out of one in misery and fear, a baby clutched to her, Jade went forward immediately to put an arm around the girl.

"What is wrong, little one?" she asked gently.

The girl, half blinded by tears, had stiffened at Jade's touch but relaxed somewhat at a female voice.

"Oh!" she cried "I – I offered work for a place to stay – I can sew and clean; and – and the Hausmeister said I might have a corner for the night if I laid with him as – as I was plainly that sort of girl!" she sobbed harder.

On closer inspection the baby was a half breed with a tuft of blonde hair.

"I take it that your baby was the result of either rape or deception" said Jade dryly.

"Yes of course; who wants to be an unwed mother?" said the girl "I was a maid in the Schiff household; and Herr Schiff ordered me to his bed; what was I to do? And then when I got pregnant and it started to show, Frau Schiff turned me off as a scarlet woman, and my mother would only keep me until I had birthed. She's a respectable woman and does sewing for the village where she lives; she cannot afford the scandal. But OH! It was NOT my fault and it isn't fair!"

"It isn't; and Herr Schiff should be paying maintenance for his child" said Jade grimly.

The girl gave a harsh, half hysterical laugh.

"What kind of idealist are you then?" she said cynically "A human? Pay for a halfbreed brat? You must be as mad as the English!"

"I am English" said Jade mildly "And I find what goes on here deplorable. Does he have a daughter called Franzisca?"

"Yes, he does; a stuck up girl, but then what humans aren't?"

"English ones" said Jade dryly "I know Franziska, though we never got on that well; I shall write to her and ask that she demand of her father proper action or I shall take his rape of you to the vehmgerichten. I have enough influence to make his name mud if he does not come across."

The girl turned to stare at Jade; and for the first time realised that she was a human. Jade was tiny by German standards; and petite even by English measurement. The goblin girl gave a little cry of terror and horror.

"You are human!"

"Yes I am; and if the Hausmeister in that apartment has given you insult I also have issue with him; I own the place" said Jade. "Will you be prepared to take a job of nursery maid to my son, and any other future children I have? That way you can care for your baby alongside them, and assist with sewing tasks. I like not the sewing done by spell; it is clumsy, but I shall not have time to do all my own sewing. Do not be afraid of me, silly wench! I have done a year at Durmstrang – where I met Franziska – but I have also been to an English school, where one of my best friends is a goblin girl – she just married my brother as it happens, so I see no shame in halfbreeds as such – and where we have very different attitudes. And things WILL change here in Germany, slow though it may be!"

"I – gracious witch, I apologise for speaking out of turn" said the girl sullenly.

"Nonsense!" said Jade "If my small size made you treat me like a person not a precious piece of stuckuppery then I am glad I am small; come now, tell me your name and your baby's name and if you will accept the position?"

"I am Thrytha; my baby is Mildryth" said the girl "Are you not afraid that there may be whispers that your husband might have sired Mildryth?"

Jade laughed.

"Any that do are such sad gits to have nothing better to worry about!" she said "I know he would not be so lost to shame as to force his attentions on any girl; nor to betray me with a willing one even. Besides, my own parents took on orphans; it is not impossible if half bred babies are not looked on favourably I may end up adopting some myself. And then who will notice one more? I will certainly sponsor her; she will grow up to go to the school I start next year for goblins and poor humans and those with bloodlines ineligible for Durmstrang – but that is eleven years away for her! Your tears have been tears of anger as much as despair; you are a fighter. I NEED fighters to help me; and if Franzisca will not help out of a certain gratitude she owes me, or cannot, because her father is obdurate, then I need your spirit to aid me to make this a test case. And as I offer you guaranteed employment, you need not fear blacklisting."

"They – other humans – may try to kill you, noble witch" said Thrytha.

Jade laughed.

"They can try; I grew up with the people fighting Voldemort, went on to fight Odessa and ended up being the one who killed Gerhardt; I'm used to danger and I accept it as the price for fighting for what I believe in. Come Thrytha! Will you be a part of our dangerous family? If so, you had better call me Frau Baronin in public, but I do not like this 'noble witch' business; I consider it demeaning to you. I know it would make you uncomfortable to use first names, but Mistress Jade is fine."

"I – I would like the job" said Thrytha.

"Good. Come back within; I want WORDS with this fellow" said Jade.

oOoOo

The goblin hausmeister was reading – or rather, looking at the pictures in – some German goblin equivalent of 'Playwizard'. He looked up at Jade's tiny figure and leered.

"WELL now!" he said "You're an expensive piece; I bet you fool human clients into thinking you human! What can I do for you, pretty?"

"For starters, you sex-crazed filth, you can start packing" said Jade crisply "You're fired; to refuse succour to a desperate young mother is one thing, to offer it in exchange for sexual favours is another. I do NOT employ filth like that. You have an hour to get out."

He goggled.

"Come off it sweetlips" he said "Are you telling me that the Von Strang family have sold their property to some whore? You may masquerade as a witch, but I see no wand. Get lost or I'll call the watch."

"Some of us, being reared English, don't actually need wands" said Jade sweetly; and let fly.

Presently, hoisted in the air by one ankle, vomiting slugs, green and with little tentacles, he was convinced perforce of Jade's abilities; and she called in Walther and Hunnic.

"Throw into the street everything that looks like his personal possessions" said Jade "And hold onto that magazine; I'm not convinced all those girls are of suitable age. We may want to hand that in to the Vehmgerichten to follow up."

"They won't" said Hunnic tersely "These are goblin and part goblin girls; they hold the view that what animals like that do are not their business if it doesn't discommode humans."

Jade made an expression of disgust.

"Then you shall take the job of investigating this filthy rag and finding out for ME" she said. "I am a member of the council after all; and I shall take up the task of protecting little girls."

Thrytha had followed the men in.

"NOBODY has ever cared about protecting us before!" she cried "I – Mistress, I find it hard to believe that you would do so without your own reasons; I beg you, tell me, and I will support you anyway!"

"Thrytha my dear, I have grown up with humans, goblins and free elves being my equals; this is how I was reared" said Jade "It is not all fairness yet in England; there are those who still see non humans as lower. But it is changing, and the great and the good support equality. Did not my friend Senagra's brother fight alongside Harry Potter and take the scar that indicates sharing the killing curse with him? And are not Lucius Malfoy's goblin stepchildren every inch Malfoys? There are slight differences in the ways goblins and humans think, but they are not enough to cause any right thinking person to perceive any difference in the way both should be treated! I fight too for the muggleborn, what most here call mudbloods; and find that many hold the sad opinion that muggles and squibs are not sentient – a ridiculous concept! I have no agenda save making Germany a good place to live – for anyone" said Jade. "The idea that my half goblin nieces and nephews to be would be treated as lesser is ridiculous; and I fight racism whether it be from humans or goblins. Now help us fling out this dirtbag's stuff; and then I shall have to find a new Hausmeister. Hunnic, will you move in temporarily and pick someone you feel deserving?"

"Yes boss" said Hunnic, who would have done anything for Jade. "I can make a full report on the street while I'm at it."

"Excellent" said Jade. "Well we shall have to knock on doors to find out what needs doing here; Walther, Hunnic, when this crap is out, you might as well start on that. I'll just remove this last piece of rubbish."

Jade flicked a finger and drew the inverted ex hausmeister outside as though dragged by the ankle; a refinement on the prefect curse where miscreants were drawn along by the ear. A gaggle of youths stared open mouthed.

"He's been fired" said Jade "Sexual peccadilloes. You never know; he might hire you to help him move his stuff. If not, someone else might hire you to stop him from littering the street."

She dropped the goblin with a thud, negated the curses with a wave of the hand and vanished the last slug.

"You bitch, I don't know where you learned them curses, but I'll have you raped to death for this!" screamed the goblin.

Jade dropped a langlock on him. He went for her and she hit him, once, hard, in the sternum. He went down.

"Nasty creature" she said "I may have to hie you off to the Vehmgerichten for threatening me so nastily; except that it's hardly worth their while. As to where I learned my magic, it was Hogwarts, Prince Peak, and to a lesser extent, Durmstrang, which is not so very good a school really, though I hope it may improve while I take a year teaching there before starting my own school for those of unproven lineage and goblins. Something to spread around, you youngsters; I cannot take all, but the brightest and best may then come back to teach. Yes?" she turned to the expensive goblin criminal.

"Gracious and noble witch, does this fellow cause you trouble?" said he.

Jade regarded the goblin who was coughing on the ground.

"Not really, thank you" she said coolly "I have fired him; I find him somewhat inadequate. He seems to think me an impostor; though he has not so much as asked to see my papers. My Ausweis is quite in order if he doubted that I am his employer. But he chose instead to be insulting. Hence I have thrown him out bodily. I am the Frau Baronin Professor Nefrita Von Strang und Luytens. To whom am I speaking?"

"I am Erc the Strong" said the criminal.

Jade dropped a brief curtsey and held out her hand for him to kiss. He goggles and seized it rather inexpertly and dropped a kiss actually on the flesh, a social solecism, but at least he was trying, for he gave a deep bow also.

"I do not like the rule of crime" said Jade "May I advise you that as things become better – as I certainly intend that they do – that you should make every effort to become a legitimate businessman; when it will be easier for me to work with you to improve the lot of Berlin goblins. If you do not, then we shall be enemies. This I warn you in all fairness."

"Noble Baronin, what makes you think I am in any way such as you describe?" demanded the crime lord.

"If you think I was born yesterday just because I'm short and quite young, you are sadly mistaken" said Jade crisply "And I didn't kill Gerhardt to let the people I champion be pushed around and exploited by criminals."

"You killed Gerhardt, noble witch?" one of the youths gasped "I thought they said he was ripped apart by his own werewolves!"

"Near, but not quite accurate" said Jade "I am a wolf animagus; which I used to disrupt his werewolves. I bit his throat out. It was very satisfying; the pig had tried once to paw at me" she added. "The werewolves, who were effectively his slaves, have been cured; as the Headmaster of Prince Peak developed a cure for them. And on the subject of cures, has anyone mentioned to you that England cured black goblin fever two centuries ago? There is a simple potion that cures it."

"This has been mentioned with other announcements from the ministry" said Erc "And few of us sure whether to believe it or not; but if the noble witch assures us this is so we will then believe it."

"I can see I shall have to install some wizarding wirelesses several places so nobody is denied information" said Jade firmly. "NOW! I have a job to do in my building; any of you kids who live here can help me out by telling me what needs to be done."

"I live next door" said one "Noble witch, do you own that too?"

Jade glanced at where he pointed.

"Yes I do" she said "My husband checks those across the street. What is your Hausmeister like?"

The boy shrugged and looked shifty.

"He does a fair job noble witch" he said.

Jade looked at him thoughtfully, gazing into his black eyes.

"You mean he knows how to play the system and as he works hard for his tenants you do not want to get him into trouble" she said "That I respect in a man; assure him that I admire one who knows how to make the system work for him – and his dependants" she went on "And that I wish him to make me a list of all deficiencies to be put right, without wondering what I may balk at. I am here to put right ten years of neglect."

"Yes, oh most noble of witches!" said the boy, and ran off.

He would be young enough to consider for the school.

oOoOo

These two apartments looked to be identical; and this one had five floors each with four pokey apartments. There were families of a dozen living in some of the apartments, all scared to have a witch and her enforcers call on them, all wary and waiting for the catch if they made any complaints. Jade started taking the expedient of barging in and making notes on a clipboard about what was wrong, while her tenants hung about fearfully, and in the case of one woman, almost fainting in terror as Jade absently picked up the crying baby from the makeshift cradle in an old crate to cuddle him. Hunnic was trying to make it clear that they were not being held responsible for the deficiencies but that the Frau Baronin wanted to put things right. Jade was horrified that none of the apartments had their own running water and made a note to have a water summoning faucet installed in each. There was a lavatory on each landing; and Jade made a note too to have a bathroom built out the back, with several rooms and several baths, or, possibly, she mused, a bathroom on each floor too in wizarding space. Better yet one with a toilet in each apartment. The tenants found it hard to take in.

Jade had heard all about poor housing from Yrdl and her family, that nobody cared about; seeing it in fact was still shocking.

"They'll have to move out a block at a time while the work is done" she said "And be portkeyed to the castle I suppose; then returned after all the dust of replacing this foul plaster has settled, and the smell of paint has subsided and so on. It's a massive undertaking; I thought the human quarter apartment was bad enough!"

"This is not too bad actually" said Hunnic "It has no real structural damage and the plaster may be peeling a bit but it is modern, less than a hundred years old, there doesn't seem to be too much dust in it, or disease and dirt."

"It's still not good enough" said Jade. "And whilst I'd like to employ local labour, I wonder if they can actually get the materials that are of the best? I must have Ruprecht organise the materials and then hire labour to use them. WHAT a lot to do!"

At least the next block had a Hausmeister that one of his young tenants seemed happy with; and Jade used legilimensy on him anyway. What she found was that he was half way to being a crook, but what Jade described as 'in a good way'; being a scrounger and good at finding legal loopholes.

Jade informed him that she would pay for good intelligence on the neighbourhood of the kind that would help all her dependants here and that if he proved himself he would be responsible for overseeing all her properties with an appropriate wage shift.

Then she met up with Wulf again before they tackled the last two buildings; and Jade was glad she had not brought any of the children. Poor little Thrytha had gone to sleep on a pile of blankets in the now empty hausmeister's rooms, Hunnic having gone to buy a few for his own temporary occupancy. The bed was so broken and old, Jade had donated it – whether he wanted it or not – to the goblin she had thrown out.

"Interesting visits" said Wulf.

"Indeed; and we have a nursemaid" said Jade, explaining hastily about Thrytha.

"Will the Schiff girl come through?" asked Wulf.

"She has an independent mind; I think she joined Nachtigall to join someone. I helped her quite a lot with transfigurations as well as with Dark Arts; and she knows I keep my word when I make threats and have the attitude that I WOULD pursue her father through the courts. Thrytha could scarcely afford to sue him; I can. And if it cost more than he coughs up, I would. On principle. And Franziska is clever enough to realise that. She has her insatiable sex drive from him I suppose; my first acquaintance with her was when she was seducing a Russian ostler and she was usually to be found out of school hours with some fellow from the village. And such is still no excuse for rape on her father's part, even if the fellow was too limited and stupid to apply the finesse of a seduction to a goblin. I think she will point out to him the realities of pissing off even a connection of the Malfoy family; that we do NOT let go. That even if the courts do not come through, that I will raise it in council; and she knows me well enough to realise that if I cannot get legal redress for Thrytha that I will do something amusing to her father. If she is fond of him, she will urge him to listen out of fondness; otherwise, it is too her name that I would be dragging through mud. Besides, there is that in Franziska that is a rebel; I think she might just resent having a half sister cast off without having a chance to approve or disapprove. She can use her brain, that one, when given the opportunity to do so; and she has learned, I think, to quite like me. I did manage to get her through two ZH's she might otherwise have struggled with after all; and I think that she enjoyed too the research that some of us managed in Ancient Runes. Yes, I think Franziska will come through. What have you that is so interesting?"

"The buildings I visited both have females in charge" said Wulf "And I suspect the first of using blackmail; though none would speak freely to me, and I am not a legilimens as you are my dear; my skills there are meagre."

"Well if Hunnic is digging around as Hausmeister for a while he will find that out" said Jade smiling at the goblin "And duly fire her if so. And if any will make complaint with backing, maybe have her arrested too."

"She was put out that a male she was presumably collecting blackmail from was arrested by the Vehmgerichten's goblin quarter running dogs" said Wulf "He who had violated the little girl in our other building."

"And I should like to have had Herr Schiff treated the same way, except that I know it is NOT going to happen; and I also would prefer Franziska as an ally by sorting it out without recourse to law" said Jade. "Well that is a problem building too, potentially; and will bear watching. The other?"

Wulf laughed.

"Essentially it's a high class brothel" he said. "The Hausmeisterin and her daughter are on the game and effectively run it, and have seen to make sure only prostitutes have rooms there, and no more than two to a rented room according to the law. Only her sitting room is a place they may meet clients and take them up. There's a mix of goblin and part goblin girls there, and they are doing fairly well; they even have a back way through the wall out back so humans in the know can walk through the wall to visit. They brew their own contraceptives so I told them to be sure and be prepared to sell them to others if they wanted, and that we should arrange for other hausmeisteren to pick up supplies to sell on discreetly from their own offices. I recall that Yrdl's mother found that a boon."

"With the huge families in that first block I'd say it was essential" said Jade "Hunnic will sort that out for the families there."

Hunnic nodded.

"It will be a secret that none shall know save those who take them" he said "As it is shaming to approach prostitutes for such. And few apothecaries will sell them to goblins."

"And enough witches find it shaming to buy in case anyone think them scarlet women, even in England, that it is a great need in both countries" said Jade "We need an apothecary's shop in this street run by an educated goblin. I'll ask Neville if he has a kid from the free school with a DOE and an OWL in potioneering. Did she vamp you, dear?"

"I'll say!" said Wulf. "I produced an illusion of my beautiful wife, however and she conceded that if she was not frozen as they say many witches are then I was in no need of her therapy."

Jade laughed.

"Cheeky wench!" she said cheerfully. "Well, I like free enterprise; any trouble to the building?"

"No; they've paid for the work themselves and firmly exhausted into submission the goblin enforcer Scheimig used to send around" said Wulf. "I offered them some rent concessions for the next five years in lieu of having made good the work for them; it seemed the best way to do it. They work hard to look good and give service as I understand; such should be given reward."

"And perhaps THEY should be encouraged to produce a better wank-book than the publication we took off the one I fired, which I swear uses underage girls" said Jade "Hunnic, if I asked you to liaise with this madam, I do hope you'd not take me the wrong way?"

Hunnic grinned.

"THAT depends on the way she takes it too" he said.

"MEN!" said Jade.

oOoOo

The last two apartments were at the far end of the street; or rather, one was at the end and the other was behind some of the other buildings down a lane. Jade reflected that this one would have been more convenient to have been the brothel, in terms of being out of the way for shy clients as well as being nearer the human platz.

That it was used for some comings and goings was evidenced by the hasty withdrawal in furtive manner of a human of dubious aspect.

Jade went in, and smiled brightly at the Hausmeisterin; the female goblin gave her a wary look.

"Gracious witch, I do not hire rooms by the hour" she said firmly.

"As your landlady I am glad to hear it" said Jade. "I observe, however, that there is some hastily concealed contraband that you deal across the wall in; though I think, so long as it is small scale I should be wiser to be deaf and blind about such that should be but natural transaction. Don't get greedy. Now, if you will tell me of the deficiencies of the building that I might address, we can move forward readily."

"I – I beg your pardon, noble witch!" said the woman . "I mistook you…."

"Your apology is accepted; I think no more of it" said Jade "Under the circumstances of your closeness to the wall and the er, irregular traffic you have some excuse in thinking my presence irregular. Unlike the creep in one of my other buildings. Shall we get down to business?"

The goblin woman had an air of dignity once she had gathered herself; Jade used legilimensy and found that she smuggled potions and herbs in, and goblin made artefacts out, all on a fairly small scale. It could certainly be blinked at.

And would become a superfluous business once there was an apothecary.

There was plenty in the building that needed addressing, and the hausmeisterin summed Jade up and was frank and full in her answers.

Jade thought she liked the woman. Certainly she was such that one might do business with; and she decided to warn her that she purposed to introduce an apothecary.

"The other ground floor apartment has just fallen vacant; the tenant died" said the hausmeisterin "If I hold that unlet, some might prefer the privacy of this location to visit an apothecary. And I could get ingredients….."

Jade considered.

"That makes a lot of sense" she said "I would hope to send in most ingredients; that I can guarantee are good quality. But having an emergency supply is possibly useful, though bearing in mind you are probably being stiffed with second best stuff."

Egdyth, the Hausmeisterin shrugged.

"That I am aware; but then, I have had to take what I can get" she said "To have good quality goods! That would be amazing!"

"It shall be so" said Jade.

oOoOo

Wulf meanwhile discovered that the Hausmeister of the last, and largest apartment did not much like to put himself out; but seemed popular with the tenants for a witty tongue. And at that with so large a population – six floors each of five apartments – a popular Hausmeister might be better than a truly efficient one. Actually he was not inefficient; efficiency saved him effort and effort was what he avoided. There was even a lift in this apartment, rather rudimentary and worked on a small steam pump; but the Hausmeister was so fat, getting up five flights of stairs otherwise was an issue.

Much needed to be addressed here too; and Wulf wanted an expert to look at the Heath Robinson lift that wheezed almost as much as its fat hausmeister.

Still, a jolly fellow – once he had got over being inspected by a landlord who actually intended to do something – made the visit pleasant enough; and the man's manner had it seemed been infectious, for desperately poor as the inhabitants were, they seemed on the whole to be a cheerful lot, making the best of things. There was a lot to how much a hausmeister might affect a whole building!

And that then was Berlin checked out; and then they might see the other holdings in other places.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

It was sweet to hear from Severus before they travelled to Neubrandenburg that the fathers of Nachtigall and De Witt had sought him out as the greatest curse breaker in the world to remove the chanted curses Jade had put on the boys when they were expelled from Durmstrang; and that he had made them pay through the nose and informed them that the money would keep impoverished goblins in school. As he had left the vestiges of the curse in place to re-emerge if either sought revenge, Jade might effectively ignore the youths; which was nice. She had no doubt that her dad had rubbed well in how well he got on with Friedolf Nachtigall and family; after all, Ritter and Heinrich Nactigall had brought all their misfortunes on themselves. She also thought scorn on the cursebreakers they had tried that could not undo so simple a curse as she had dropped on the boys.

Here Jade forgot that using chanting made undoing curses much harder, especially as she had used amusing poems rather than the usual hate-filled periods; since Jade did not think enough about either boy to hate them and had looked upon it as a bit of amusement value rather than a true curse. It was impossible for a curse breaker to remove verbal venom when there was none!

oOoOo

It was Jade's day to receive owls bearing messages; and she decided to sort out all the business THAT threw up before going to Neubrandenburg.

First was a letter from Franziska Schiff, in answer to Jade's demands of her to work on her father over his impregnation of Thrytha and the goblin girl's subsequent dismissal. Herr Schiff was willing to pay reasonable compensation and upkeep of his halfbreed daughter on the condition that his wife never got to hear about it. His quaestor would be in contact. Franziska wrote that though her father wanted no contact or progress reports of his daughter she was curious about her sister and would Nefrita mind if she, Franziska, visited the child since if Nefrita thought it worth while taking time over goblins, she too was willing to look further, especially if her father had felt it suitable to use one as a sexual partner whatever he may say about them being subhuman. Franziska wrote that in her opinion, if someone was subhuman, humans had no right to use them sexually any more than they should with children.

Jade wrote back dryly that the baby's poor little mother was scarcely any more than a child in any case having been no more than fourteen when Herr Schiff ordered her to his bed; and though Franziska might have been enjoying amatory adventures at that age, it had been her choice and moreover she had been larger. Jade had spoken to Thrytha, and read out Franziska's letter to the goblin girl; and Thrytha had been surprised that the stuck up pure blood girl should want contact but readily agreed with Jade that her daughter deserved contact with an older sister. Thus Jade added that the letter was brought by an elf who would bring Franziska directly to Schloss Von Strang. This was Fritti, the grizzled patriarch of the Von Strang elves who was to be castle housekeeper and who had an individualist outlook on life.

While Fritti delivered the letter Jade unravelled the rather convoluted letter from Herr Rebet, in which he wrote that he had been poking around the goblin community in Kiev and had actually found a practising potioneer, a half goblin woman who had a daughter called Zhenga who would be ready for school when Jade opened her new one and wishful to put her name down for it. Rebet seemed impressed that this woman was self taught and managed to grow a few herbs for herself in what he described as pitiful conditions in pots on a balcony; Jade suspected that he was distinctly drawn to this woman for her spirit. Well, if he was, then he should have to come to her school as potions master while Cacilia taught at Durmstrang; Agata Bacsó was going to have enough conniptions if she discovered that Clovis Gierek looked on his elf as a wife, let alone if any of her staff turned up with a goblin, or even half goblin, wife. She must discuss this with Ihor Rebet once term began. She had time to write back that she would of course include this child on her waiting list and any others in the community he considered worth teaching, bearing in mind, she added, that some people did have skills other than potioneering, even if that was a little difficult for skill snobs like him and her and her dad to contemplate. Ihor Rebet was amenable to teasing nowadays, at least from Jade. He would do well by this woman Taryn whether he married her or not; to him a potioneer born was sacred and to be nurtured. One might hope this child he sponsored would be a born potioneer like her mother that his hopes in her be fulfilled.

And then Fritti turned up with Franziska.

"Hello Nefrita; I don't really know anything about goblins, except your obliging little servants" said Franziska "But I'm sort of angry with my father for having double standards, though I'm not going to rat him up to mother because he OUGHT to pay for being careless – and you write for not giving this girl a choice. Only you made like you escaped having goblins at Prince Peak then you kind of champion them; I'm confused."

"You'll do" said Jade "Look, Franziska, I'm going to share a secret with you. Nefrita Von Strang was always a fiction; because we had to bring Odessa down."

And then she explained how she had a blood pact with her adopted brother Erich Von Strang, kidnapped from Durmstrang by Severus and Krait to protect him from Voldemort, his half siblings having their deaths faked, and how none of them were interested in claiming the estates; so she had invented the persona purely to infiltrate Odessa and bring it down. She explained that her closest friends knew, and sundry staff, including the headmistress; and that she purposed to set up a school for goblins and humans of dubious blood status and the poor, using the Von Strang castle, to give a cadre of educated goblins that should help right off to ease the hatreds felt for humans.

Franziska listened in wonder. She was not offended that Jade had not told her at school; they had never been close friends even after Nachtigall had been expelled and Franziska had turned to Jade to help her with schoolwork.

"You're quite – well, I don't really have an adjective!" she said. Jade laughed.

"I hope the region in which you were exploring for one wasn't too vituperative!" she said.

"No; not at all. You know what you want and go for it; I wish I had that certainty" said Franziska wistfully "I know I'm dissatisfied with the life of just being a rich pure blood girl whose parents will arrange me a marriage for me to breed another generation of bored kids who feel there's some other mystery to life. At least I could tell daddy that I REALLY didn't want to marry the one mummy picked because he kind of has to back me as I know his dirty little secret. Did he really actually rape her?"

"Repeatedly" said Jade "Consider if you will working for a half troll and having to do what he says or starve and being used will you nil you night after night. Same sort of size difference."

Franziska shuddered.

"And daddy's more shifty about mummy finding out than any guilt-feelings over it" she said resentfully "I love him but it's dented my automatic trust in him. Mind you, I did wonder what it was about goblins that made him fancy one and one of our ostlers is a goblin and he really is rather good in bed."

"It's more because he personally is good in bed rather than because he's a goblin" said Jade dryly "I do hope you're being sensitive enough to be really discreet; he's likely not to just be fired but to be killed by your parents if they find out."

Franziska nodded.

"I know; we discussed it, him and me, and I used the chanting that I started joining in with to build a gate from my bedroom to the hayloft so I could leave him in a hurry to hide the evidence. I can't believe I actually did library work just for an affair!"

"If you did so for his protection I honour you for that, Fran" said Jade soberly. "And I wish you and him every luck; please, if you fall out with him, don't get thoughtless and betray him."

"I shan't; I promise" said Franziska. "I – I actually stay with Gennic afterwards; rather than just go once we're sated. He's got an interesting outlook on life."

"Crumbs!" said Jade "Well if he needs a haven to flee to, bring him here and I'll protect him. You ARE using potions to keep from getting pregnant? You can palm off most lover's children on a hastily brought up to scratch suitor but not a half goblin baby."

"I'm not stupid!" said Franziska "I learned to brew contraceptive potions out of the book when I was thirteen; before I had my first adventure. And I looked up the abortifacient too."

"Contact me and let me brew it if you need it" said Jade "I'm a way better potioneer than you and it can be a risky one."

"I shall" said Franziska "Can I meet my half sister now? What's her name?"

"Mildryth" said Jade "She'll either go to my school or Prince Peak; I put her name down for Prince Peak in case she is too much a part of the family. There's already a Schiff family there; any relation? Gunnar Schiff is of mixed blood, he became a werewolf until dad cured him."

"We do have a family branch which married a mudblood; I guess he must be from that" said Franzizka "I guess I ought to get to know them too if I'm going to be serious about questioning the values I've been taught. Coming on top of your lectures about dark magic being essentially performed by the terminally dim and selfish, daddy having such double standards for personal gratification has been a shock that's made me think; and Gennic might not be educated but he isn't actually stupid at all."

"I think that would be really nice" said Jade. "There's a kid, Rudi; and Madam Schiff is pregnant now they're free of the curse. They know what it is to be outcasts as werewolves, so if you want to make any break from your pampered life they'll be helpful I should think. As of course will I."

"It's a lot to take in" said Franziska.

Jade introduced the girl to her infant half sister and a rather nervous Thrytha; and left them to it.

Thrytha later said, rather shyly, to Jade,

"She was really nice to me; I wasn't expecting that. She said there's no difference she can see between Mildryth and any human baby; so she supposed goblin babies weren't really so different either. Is it true there are other family members the main line despises?"

"Yes; those with muggle blood in and who have recently been werewolves" said Jade "I wanted to confirm the relationship with Franziska before saying anything to you. And I do have to wonder if Franziska's father arranged to have his cousin Gunnar bitten since any of Gunnar's children would be four generations removed from muggle blood and just eligible for Durmstrang. Gunnar met a muggleborn witch who had become a werewolf and their son Rudi and subsequent children that they have will NOT be eligible therefore for Durmstrang; and as they're having a second family now they're free of the disease you may want Mildryth to go to Prince Peak with her cousins. You can decide that later" she added kindly.

Well, Franziska was asking the questions now that Jade had not quite got her asking while they were at school; and that was a good start. What would happen with this possibly ill considered affair with a goblin ostler could only remain to be seen; but Jade sighed to herself knowing full well that when something went wrong – as it probably would – it would be she to whom Franziska would turn to pick up the pieces.

oOoOo

There were three streets to examine in Neubrandenburg; two of human occupied dwellings, one of goblin housing, all housing for the workers at a tannery Jade also owned.

Jade went first to the more up market human street; there was a veritable rabbit warren of wizarding streets in this ancient city, leading off a section of the intact medieval walls, now with later exits in the greater urban region too; and essentially medieval in character. Jade fully intended to make sure that the tannery employed modern and NOT medieval techniques when she got there; no call for the poor devils working there to stink now that better means than human and canine urine and faeces were available to tan with. As she strongly suspected the traditionalist German wizarding world still used.

First things first however; and she would look first at the better class human street where one side was owned by her and included some small shops and offices. And one of the shops a wholly owned business of the Von Strang family, employing Anwalten, lawyers, who were much despised by the family Anwalt, Herr Lothar Schlange. Which fact made Jade well disposed towards this unknown firm since she despised and disliked Schlange cordially.

The sign said 'Genaumann and son, Anwalten'; and Jade went in.

The red haired gawky youth leaped to his feet to click his heels to a beautiful woman.

"Gnadige Fraulein! How may I be of assistance?" he asked.

"Are you 'and son'?" asked Jade.

The youth flushed.

"No gracious lady I am as you might say 'and great grandson' as my grandsire had only daughters; I am Marius Schreiber at your service and learning the business."

"Might I speak to Herr Genaumann with or without Herr Genaumann junior? As you are of the family I will tell you straight that I am the Frau Baronin Von Strang und Luytens, your landlady" said Jade.

"Oh but lady! You are too young and beautiful surely to be married?" cried young Schreiber.

Jade laughed; the exclamation was one of genuine wonder.

"Naytheless I am married and a mother; but such a compliment any woman likes. Your father too; is he of the firm?"

"Yes, he is senior clerk and researcher; he has preferred not to take legal exams."

"And what about you?" asked Jade.

"Frau Baronin, unless you wish us out, I must learn all I can to continue the family business; my great grandfather works only three days a week for he is not young. I will get them all!" he jumped up and ran off. Jade judged him about sixteen.

Two elderly men came into the front of the shop with a younger man with auburn hair, evidently Marius' father.

"Frau Baronin!" said the elder "Forgive the boy his impetuosity I beg! Pray come back into the office and be comfortable; Marius, put up a closed sign!"

Jade followed them back to a combined library-office; it had a comfortably shabby feel.

They saw her tenderly into the most comfortable chair and all regarded her solemnly and with obvious worry.

"Pray sit; perhaps the lad will make coffee" said Jade.

Marius glanced at the oldest old man and at a nod darted off again.

"He is not at Durmstrang; I have just left" said Jade "How then does he earn qualifications to be an Anwalt?"

"There is a school on the corner of this street that teaches to ZP some four subjects – Potions, Charms, Transfigurations and Arithmancy" said the oldest Herr Genaumann "And I teach part time as a volunteer for those who would study History. And they act as an out centre for those who wish to study ZH on their own time. Marius takes his ZP's in the coming summer; he manages all five subjects and learns ancient runes on his own time" he added proudly.

"Then I shall sponsor him to Prince Peak academy for his ZH levels; NEWTs they are called at an English school but honoured by Germany" said Jade. "I see enough intelligence in his eyes to make it worth my while to pay for him; and then he will train hard to be my personal legal representative so I can get rid of Lothar Schlange."

"Schlange is honest" ventured the younger Herr Genaumann "Though I do not like him."

"He sneers at my father-in-law and Grandfather-in-law for learning as have I and Marius from a dame school" said the older Schreiber "And I loathe him."

Jade grinned.

"well we have that in common" she said "I MUST have a legal representative; and until and unless I know if your firm is capable of handling my affairs I cannot dissociate myself from the horrid creature. Also I need to know your views on race matters; Marius would study alongside goblins and free elves in Prince Peak."

"Preposterous!" cried the oldest Herr Genaumann.

The younger stared.

"There are then those actually capable of such levels of study?" he asked.

"I don't care if my son has to study beside fairies if he can get a decent education" said Herr Schreiber "And he is MY son."

"Ah, the red hair" grinned Jade "I have a few red haired relatives; I respect its stubbornness, Herr Schreiber! Yes, goblins and free elves are capable of such levels of study, Herr Genaumann; and why not as we all share common ancestors? Hags too are educable and half giants; nobody I know has actually ever tried with half trolls, but I'd not turn one away if it so happened that one applied when I am running my own school next year for the disadvantaged in society, those of muggle blood, goblins and so on. And that will need much legal representation and Schlange too much a blood snob to recognise that they are people too."

Making clear Schlange's views was enough to make the oldest one perform a _volte face_ straight away.

"That arse-licking snake! If you have proof goblins can learn without acting like trash the whole firm applauds your bravery, My Lady!" he considered "Would he be able to take European history not English?"

"I can't see it being a problem" said Jade "Percy Weasley is the sort of teacher who continues to learn and he has been making noises about it being necessary to start European history as there are so may European youngsters there. As to the achievements of goblins, I can cite you a girl a year older than me who left school with six ZH equivalents, four at 'O' grade and two at 'E'; and having studied both in an English school and in Durmstrang I can assure you that the levels are very much equivalent, or possibly very slightly harder in the English exams. Save perhaps in the theory of transfiguration where the exam was slightly harder, though the practical was much easier" she added. "If there is a school here extant I may be able to help it out with funds too for taking more on; I cannot take everyone at the school I hope to start. Perhaps I can fund a fifth teacher at this school; enchanting perhaps or herbology. All depending on what jobs there are available locally. I can't get myself involved in that yet though; I want to visit all the properties I own and address any problems there are; and when term starts I shall be teaching in Durmstrang for a year."

"There will be a boy from this town starting, Frau Baronin" said the younger Herr Genaumann "We proved his genealogy to be sufficient to be accepted; he is from a poor part of town so his parents make many sacrifices. Beremud Gerecht is hard working though and will not waste their sacrifice."

"May I ask why none of you wished for Durmstrang?" asked Jade.

"Because it is said that the bullying is institutionalised and those of high birth lord it over those of poor background and are obnoxious little shits" snorted the oldest one; then paled realising to whom he was speaking.

Jade nodded.

"This has, alas, indeed been so; the boy's parents feel he can brave that to rise?" she asked and the Genaumanns nodded. "Then they are in luck; for I and my friends have been working towards breaking the trend over the last year when I entered the school. And that is why I wish to teach for a year, to continue the setting of new trends. Madam Bacsó is now free of the influence of Odessa; and since I killed her last Odessa spy who was teaching the Dark Arts the least I can do is to fill in. A fascinating field of study and one I hope to persuade my pupils is too a futile one to engage upon seriously. The dark arts are such a temptation to the weak minded and morally frail and they need to know how destructive to the wielder they can be."

"Frau Baronin, I approve of you more than I would have thought" growled the old man. "But why then do you not suggest Durmstrang for Marius?"

Jade smiled austerely.

"Because even without the institutionalised bullying, Durmstrang still seeks to turn out those who conform. Though there are some good little non conformists coming up the school, I think Marius would get more out of the very individual-oriented approach that Professor Snape has; and though the teaching level is good in both schools, the English school will teach to his strengths and be flexible enough to let him fit in extra OWLs – ZP equivalents – if he wishes, the staff ready to give up free time to a keen enough student. As your practice is inclined towards information seeking, he may wish to study divining allied with geomancy, say, not as an exam study but to use to trace missing persons. Useful when proving wills or seeking out family members for background."

There were exchanged looks; this sounded attractive. Marius looked frankly excited as he passed out coffee.

Jade liked this family firm; they were not really highly enough trained for her purposes but there were parts of her estate management that she might pass over to them; the administration and maintenance of all her buildings in Neubrandenburg for example; and that she suggested.

It was agreed that Marius and his father would accompany her to make notes and that she would then order Schlange to make over such documents as pertained to the firm.

They discussed first this street; which was about on a par with, or slightly better off than, the street in Berlin; and Herr Schreiber introduced Jade to the occupants of those houses she owned. A goblin came into the shop as they left, asking to have a letter read to her, and to pay for a reply to be written. Jade shook her head sadly; even in England literacy was not universal amongst the poorest though it was by no means as bad as here. This seemed to constitute much of the Genaumann's custom.

There was little enough that needed doing in this street; some tiles to be replaced on one house, a problem of damp in the cellar to be addressed in another, and a case of chizpurfles in a third that Jade went briskly in and dealt with herself without bothering to call in a vermin operative. Chizpurfles were not to Jade's mind any big deal; but then she did have an OWL in care of magical beasts that covered dealing with vermin. Another house was abandoned because nobody would stay in it long; and Jade swept through it with the Schreibers in her wake, ignoring their disparate cries of "WEREWOLF!" and "FIRE!" when the little black mannikin jumped out.

"It's called a boggart and you deal with it by the spell _ridikulus_ whilst changing what you fear in your own mind to something silly – say a werewolf taking off its fur and dancing in its bones, or your fire, Marius, becoming a fire demoness who gets ravished by a water monster" said Jade calmly, pointing at the boggart to make both illusions for each of the Schreibers, a tricky piece of legilimensy and illusion but eminently possible for one of her talent. They watched, fears calming, as the boggart fled; and Jade tracked it back to a cupboard from which she firmly removed the creature and apparated it into the middle of the Pripet Marshes because she hesitated to kill such a pathetic creature. "You need to learn how to deal with a boggart; I shall let them know at Prince Peak that you need a few Defence Against the Dark Arts classes, Marius" she said.

"Thank you, ma'am" said Marius "We had a boggart at home once; Great Grandfather called in ministry vermin control when he worked out what it was."

Another reminder to Jade that she was privileged; to her, dealing with a boggart was nothing; she did not even see her worst nightmare any more; she had overcome too many fears. And even those who did see a thing to be feared could almost all readily deal with a simple boggart – if they had been trained. And so few had.

"Well it looks like the fifth teacher in the local school should be in DADA" said Jade. "Dealing with dark creatures is easier when you're trained to it; and a bit late to look up if it's Kappa or Redcaps who like cucumber if one of them is actually menacing you. It's Kappa by the way; and hardly likely to trouble anyone in Germany as they're Japanese. Well, that house can be safely let."

"Thank you for showing us how to deal with such Gnadige Frau Baronin" said Herr Schreiber.

"You're welcome" said Jade who thought it as easy as de-doxifying curtains or annihilating chizpurfles.

The next street was decidedly humble; the houses were single rooms wide, crammed together, the front door opening straight into the main room. There were two rooms downstairs, a main room and a kitchen, and upstairs a room on each of two or three more floors. The backs of the houses opened onto a shared yard wherein was a privy block with bath house that doubled as a laundry and a pump as well as a well. Jade, who had insisted on going round the back first, tutted.

"This is the only running water? No magical faucets within?"

"Not so far as I know, Gnadige Baronin" said Marius. "I've never come here before; Mama thinks such people are a cut below me."

"In my book, no PEOPLE are a cut below each other as such" said Jade "Some put themselves beneath contempt by blood snobbery or rudeness; and I mean deliberate rudeness not mere vulgarity. Is that the youth who goes to Durmstrang, Beremud Gerecht?" a boy had come out of the back of one of the houses with a bucket for the well. He was not so Aryan as some, having chestnut hair worn rather long, and with a face that spoke of a touch of the Slav for its high cheekbones and narrow eyes. Jade thought he looked much as a very young Jack Palance might have looked. She went over as Herr Schreiber nodded and the boy glanced up with piercingly green eyes. The eyes took in Jade's expensive robe.

"Excuse me, Gnadige Fraulein, are you lost?" said the boy. His gaze was unwavering and open if a little wary.

"Not at all" said Jade "I but thought to make acquaintance of a lad bound next term for Durmstrang; and to applaud your zeal and urge you not to let the slings and arrows of any outrageous snobs hold you down"

"Oh! Will you too be going there?" asked the boy "You know me – how is that?"

"Because it was mentioned in passing as I visited my properties in Perückestrasse that a lad from this town had brought honour by being accepted as a pupil; naturally I was curious. I shall be teaching my first year. And naturally I shall both look out for and yet perforce be harsher on a tenant of mine" said Jade.

"T-teaching? Pray excuse me, I took you for a pupil, perhaps also new" said the boy.

"Ah, my size is always against me" said Jade. "You do understand, do you not, that as you are a dependant of mine I must be harder on you in class, even as I would to a relative, even as I shall be to those who were my fags last year?"

Beremud nodded seriously.

"I would not seek any favours anyway if I were even related to all the teachers" he declared. "Please, what do you teach?"

"Good lad" said Jade "I teach the Dark Arts; and as much as an awful warning about how they tend to rule those who would use them indiscriminately more than the fools that see them as a short cut manage to control them."

"Oh!" said Beremud "I – I rather find the dark arts fascinating."

"They are; there is an allure to the very flexibility and mutability of them" said Jade "And therein lies a danger; if one is not very strong minded. You shall join the English Customs Hobby Group; it teaches self discipline and additional defensive techniques. I will also ask one I know to take you as fag; this will protect you and see that an older one I feel affection for has a good fag. Your eyes are honest; and I believe you have the will to avoid the snares the dark arts set whilst learning about them. Work hard; make me proud of one of my own."

"I SHALL Fraulein – uh, Professor!" he said.

"Beremud!" a voice called from the doorway "WHERE are you with that water?"

Jade strolled over.

"My apologies Frau Gerecht; I delayed your son as I shall be teaching him next term in Durmstrang. I believe I am your landlady; I am Frau Baronin Nefrita Von Strang und Luytens, though Beremud will not need to recall all that rigmarole; I shall be Professor Von Luytens to the school."

The woman dropped a hasty and flurried curtsey.

"Frau Baronin! We are honoured!" she said.

Jade laughed.

"I should apologise again that actually you are probably extremely put out; but I need to see for myself the property I have inherited to see what problems need addressing. Quite a few as I can see already; inside water, inside privies and some structural repairs. The rear view of houses is always revealing of their defects. I have made the Anwalten in Perückestrasse my agents for this town; they are to make a list of all the deficiencies in this street and the others I own and let me know so I may address them properly – you may see Herr Schreiber and son with me. And as you and your husband have the gumption to fight for your son's education perhaps you can assist by asking your neighbours to consider what needs doing; there will be a small clerk's fee for you for so doing" she added. "And in seven years time I can see Beremud working for me in whatever capacity he shines in; and you remember young shaver, how ever much you hate it, Arithmancy is the key to everything."

"I do not dislike basic figuring Frau Professor; I hope I will be good at it" said Beremud.

"And a good realistic summation rather than a declaration that you will shine; I like that" said Jade. "Do you like a quiet life or have you a taste for adventure?"

"I – I want to do well at school; but I think I would like adventure" said the boy.

"Well I cannot promise you the same; but you shall fag for Zhanargul Nurtazin; she has danger in her life and would like a loyal fag" said Jade.

"A foreigner?" said Beremud, dismayed.

"Come, most of your classmates will be from all across Europe; be not parochial!" chided Jade "She is a princess amongst her own wizarding folk; and there is a wicked uncle and plots galore. And I want eyes I may trust taking care of her" she added. "Some of my previous fags will be hers also; but I like your looks."

Having legilimensed him helped too; he was as straight as a die, prepared to be hard if he had to, and determined not to let his parents down. Jade wanted to see that he did not have to be hard.

"I will take care of her for you, Frau Professor!" said Beremud.

A young boy could usually be relied on to fight metaphorical dragons for a princess.

"Good boy!" said Jade "I hope too you will not be silly about goblins; if you work for me in the future you will have to be used to me having goblins in my employ too and I reward on ability not race."

He shrugged.

"I never met any goblins properly" he said "I guess I have nothing against them. Dad has a job overseeing the tannery. He says they are mostly hard workers."

"Excellent!" approved Jade. "If your mother can spare you, perhaps you will run for me to the tannery and inform your father that I shall be over shortly to inspect it; as I appear to own that too. I need to see if previous Von Strangs were up to date in their methods or silly old fools that make the place stink."

"It stinks, Frau Professor; dad uses spells to remove the smell but he pities the goblins living near it."

"Then you may tell your father that there are more modern ways to tan than with stench. If he pities his underlings I think I already like him."

"We are fortunate to be born human" said Beremud "I am glad I am not a goblin; you mean to treat them more like humans?"

"Such is my purpose" said Jade "And to expand the tannery and its attendant industries to give better employment to goblins and humans alike if I may. Such I must discuss with your father. May he go, Frau Gerecht?"

"Of course, Frau Baronin! Run now, Beremud!" said his mother.

The boy ran.

This was going to be an easier piece of work to deal with than Berlin had been.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Albert Gerecht begged the Frau Baronin excuse him from shaking hands as he stank from the tanning vats and asked what methods might be used to make it smell less.

"Potioneering has moved on past the use of human waste in the last few centuries" said Jade "Even as potioneering has in England made black goblin fever extinct; with a quick and simple cure. Your son will learn it as one of the potions Herr Professor Rebet now teaches. Is there a community potion maker amongst the goblins?"

"Yes, Frau Baronin, an old crone of a goblin sees to such and to midwifery" said Gerecht.

"Good; I will see her and see that she has the recipe" said Jade "Though I think most diseases of a normal nature might be frightened off by the smell. Joking apart, though, it's not a healthy atmosphere to live in."

"No Baronin; but this is the goblin quarter" said Gerecht. "Though they say there are no segregated areas in England – do you know if this is so?"

Goblins were straining to hear the answer.

"There are yet areas where more of one race than another live; for some this is of choice" said Jade "The largest concentrations are in London and Nottingham with a large community too in Birmingham; in these cities goblins tend to live in the poorer neighbourhoods as they have been second class citizens so long. The poorer humans live largely in the same streets, but one might find concentrations in short alleys say, or apartment blocks. The wealthy goblins tend to live alongside wealthy humans in such neighbourhoods that the well off live. The parents of the first goblin in Hogwarts school have put so far two of his sisters through school; his brother is not yet old enough, nor the child their parents adopted; she's a half goblin, some poor girl got seduced by a wizard who dropped her when she got with child; she died birthing."

"I'm afraid that does happen" sighed Gerecht. "This goblin has done well to send so many children to school if the fees are much as Durmstang are."

"Fortunately in England there are mixed marriages so being halfbred is not a stigma" said Jade. "Yes; Konal is a very successful broker and financial adviser. He handles the monies of some of the wealthiest in England; he handles my English holdings. The fees are not quite as steep for Hogwarts as for Durmstrang; it places more emphasis on education and less on blood status. I however shall be opening a heavily subsidised school in Germany with many free places wherein I shall be receiving those NOT eligible for Durmstrang; goblins included. This community should decide which of its youngsters will be most deserving; I shall give priority, if numbers applying are high, to those who are my tenants and employees, human and goblin alike. It is nepotism; but one must have some means to make choice. I am hoping to train teachers who can set up schools in their own communities. The new exam, the ZAP will be sufficient to qualify for wand carrying status; I hope to have those ambitious enough to go further also."

"You tell me this so they may overhear without seeming to be lectured Frau Baronin? You are very clever" said Albert Gerecht in a low voice.

"And you are shrewd to pick up on it" approved Jade "I shall hope you will also advise me on who needs education most. I do NOT want those who only want it to crow over others that they have a wand; there will be others more deserving. I thought to devise a test at first for competency and if I feel one may be disruptive I may fudge the test."

"We have a good hard working bunch" said Gerecht "Only Furic is lazy; and he's too lazy to get his wife with child anyway so no worries about a child of his."

Jade laughed.

"That takes laziness beyond most criteria!" she said. "You mean he only managed to stir himself to get married to arrange himself a surrogate mother who'd cook, wash and clean for him?"

"Well he got wed three months after his mother died; you draw your own conclusion, Frau Baronin" said Gerecht dryly.

He listened interested to technical details about improving the tanning process; and shouted to the goblins, who were also listening, to see that any vats currently not in use were emptied and to empty each as the leather came out.

"I can cast the vanishing spell if you want on any that are already not in use" said Jade "It's the easiest solution."

"I would be grateful if you would so condescend, Frau Baronin" said Gerecht.

"It really is no trouble" said Jade "I need to concentrate a little harder than usual on such a large amount; I loaned my wand to a midwife whose need was greater than mine."

"It is true then, that those of English blood cast without wands?" cried Gerecht.

Jade chuckled.

"Those of us who are stubborn enough to learn. Yes, many English are that stubborn; it is not a universal skill though. I was in England during the Voldemort years as a small child; before carrying a wand many of us were taught such things as the shield charm by concerned parents. It blocks most things up to and including the cruciatus curse; if your son joins the hobby group that runs for stamina in the English fashion he will learn that there. It means early rising; but if he is not afraid of putting in the time he will do very well."

"Beremud is not afraid of hard work" said the boy's father proudly. "And I am sure there are children of those who work here who will work equally hard if given the chance."

"I'm not taking those over sixteen unless they can convince me they have a special case, whatever their race" said Jade "And they'll have to be content to work with smaller children to catch up. Special cases do include those who can talk very fast to convince me" she added. "We'll offer a full complement of subjects; and through respect to my teachers I will not present them with pupils I do not think have a good chance of passing some qualifications."

"I think most will be glad to work hard; I should have been" said Gerecht. "It is why I want the chance for my son and glad he just fell within the criterion."

"And no reason you should not study his lessons from his notes in the holidays" said Jade. "If you clubbed together to get second hand copies of his books, indeed with letters from him you might put together a club to study in the evenings a couple of times a week; which would also prepare some of those youngsters who would take part for me, for next year."

Gerecht brightened.

"That is an excellent idea, Frau Baronin!" he declared "This I will organise!"

"If there is one who is good at explaining, let me know and I will pay schoolmaster's fees to be sure all are fluent in literacy and numeracy skills at least" said Jade. This was a good town; the feel was entirely different to Berlin. It was so far north and so old, without the disturbances Berlin had suffered, that the communities were less aggressively separate, even if separated by custom and geography; there seemed less tension. For each race the other just existed; without any big deal over hatred or rivalry. Which was good; because one thing she feared was that the lower class humans would be more racist because goblins were all they had to despise. And some might yet be she reminded herself; the Gerecht family seemed to live up to their surname, meaning 'just'; others may be less so. Still it was a good start.

And of course the Gerechts might yet suffer anger from their human neighbours for being above themselves to get Beremud into Durmstrang; though the goblins working under Albert seemed proud that their boss had a clever son.

Well what would be would be; Beremud was her concern for the next year.

And he should join Sofie, Elfleda and Leva in looking out for Zhanargul.

oOoOo

The last stop in this community was to see the old potioneer; and to pass to her the recipe for the curing of black goblin fever and to be sure she knew all the most up to date midwifery potions. Fortunately the old woman could read, albeit not with fluency; and Jade wrote out her recipes in a neat round hand that was easy to read. The old woman was grateful and would have kissed Jade's feet if Jade had permitted it.

"We potioneers are akin; and should share knowledge" said Jade firmly. "You should pick an apprentice; I hope there will be those that I train at the school I'm starting, but if you prepare a child over the next year it won't come amiss. And if you can teach others to read I will pay you for that."

The old woman was amazed and grateful anew; and Jade, embarrassed, made her escape.

oOoOo

The last place to visit was the mining village; and Lothar Schlange had made it quite clear that he felt that for a witch to be so reckless as to visit a goblin mining village was asking for trouble. He had sniffed and said that a tough rent collector backed up by a couple of wanded bodyguards and a pair of security trolls into the bargain might not have any trouble but that such treacherous rough animals as mining goblins would make short work of a young and too pretty witch.

Jade took Torik as her factor's man, his son Alrik, young Fyra and baby Ralph. She did not consider the words of Schlange worth paying much attention to. It might be that a lone witch would get rolled in the dirt and given some payback, maybe even raped; and the goblins would then, if they had acted in anger, have to kill her and hide the body well to avoid retribution. But Jade did not think that they would attack a woman with an infant, regardless of race, especially with the two goblin children too.

She arrived at dawn; either the miners would be rising to go into the pits or, if they preferred to be in daylight on their few leisure hours, coming up from them. The work was doubtless hard and dangerous.

It happened that she arrived as the women gathered in silent horror as the few who had got out reported a pitfall; and Jade thrust Ralph into the arms of the nearest goblin woman and grabbed one of the shocked, terrified goblins to stare into his eyes; and to the horror of Torik disappeared in front of his eyes.

Jade apparated directly to the region from which the fugitive had scrambled before the fall; and found herself in a pocket of air with three goblins, discussing whether they should waste air trying to dig or whether they should open a vein.

"You're doing neither; you're coming out now" said Jade, grabbing all three and apparating smoothly back into the air.

There were gasps and cries of joy from the wives of those retrieved.

"Where is my Nuric?" cried another woman.

"Where were the others?" Jade asked one of the men she had heaved out.

"Behind us….. possibly buried" he said.

"Which of you three will volunteer to come back with me to dig them out?" asked Jade.

"I will" the man she had spoken too spoke up quickly. Jade nodded; took him by the long fingered hand and returned them to the dark pit from whence she had just lifted him. Quickly she cast _lumos_ on the roof of the small air bubble, summoned more air and brightened the light with absent grace by a wave of the hand.

"I need I think to flood all this area with good air" said Jade "And to dig slowly but surely; can you hold this beat to help me?" she made a scraping noise of one hand across the other palm before a light clap, a digging sort of noise. The goblin, bemused, nodded; he was not about to question the witch who had saved his life and put herself in danger to save others.

"It may all fall in" he volunteered.

Jade absently transfigured the sides and ceiling into concrete.

"Not any more" she said; and as he held her beat began chanting. And as she chanted the earth poured gently away from the face of the fall and vanished into Jade's automatic evanesco; until she saw the arm.

She dug more specifically at that point, desperately reaching for the face and chest.

He was alive, but barely; and mercifully unconscious. Jade cast the _apnoeo_ spell on him and healed the worst of the crushed ribs; his injuries for the main would wait. She cleared enough to pull him through and lay him where he would take least hurt. Now she used a _sonorous_ spell on her chanting so that any the other side might hear that help was on its way; and drew on the blood group for strength. It was no big deal; but being the focus of the power that hit her was a heady thing and she knew she could toss the mountain top aside to get to those trapped. She also knew by common sense that such would be a rather silly thing to do.

The next air pocket was small and had seven goblins all of rather bad colour in; the colour returning as the good air Jade was summoning reached their lungs.

"Nuric!" one of them cried, seeing the unconscious one "Is he dead?"

"No but you should not move him until he can be stabilised; he has many broken bones" said Jade "How many more?"

"Two" said the volunteer, checking faces.

Jade nodded.

"Stay in the safe part I made; I will take you all out presently" she said, and continued chanting her gentle digging and banishing charm.

She found the two.

The one on top of the young boy was dead; had thrown himself over the boy to save him. And almost a futile gesture; the boy was horribly injured where metal props had fallen and pierced his body. Jade swore pungently and changed her chant to project his injuries and heal them so he had a chance to live. The power of the blood group sustained her and she was grateful; without it such a healing might not be possible.

"I will take the boy and this Nuric up first" said Jade once the boy moaned in semi conscious pain "Then come back for the rest; it will take me three trips for you. Decide amongst yourselves who is first and who is last to go."

There was a cry as Jade arrived with two bodies held immobile in magical bonds that she lowered to the ground.

"Nuric!" the young goblin woman cried and ran to him.

"Move them not; the movement could harm them. I would not heal them past stability while there are still men to bring up" said Jade sharply; and disapparated back underground.

Each time she brought up three; the last trip having the dead body with it. A woman, seeing his neck sag horribly, screamed.

"He was already dead when I got to him" said Jade harshly "He died to save the boy. Are all now accounted for?"

"They are noble witch; we are grateful beyond measure" said an elderly goblin.

"Which goes to prove" said Jade "That every mining community should have a safety officer with an apparating licence; and that safety standards should be better observed in the first place. The pit props were, it seemed to me, substandard; which is ultimately my fault since I own this mine, but actually more likely the fault of Martin Scheimig my erstwhile factor who I shall now have sought for negligent homicide. If refusing to replace props was his idea?"

"Gracious Witch, he said we might use the trees of the forest" said the old man.

"Pine? Well it is resilient when new but splinters readily when it is seasoned; a stopgap measure no more" said Jade grimly. "Work on the mine will cease until decent props are installed; you will not lose pay" she added. "Now excuse me; I have two injured men to restore to health and I could do with all your good will to fuel my spells."

Chanting over injured goblins in the light and air was a different proposition to hasty fixes underground; and Jade drew on the power of twenty three factorial to heal them on a deeply cellular level, and to tie the healing specifically to them. A most excellent piece of research on Lilith's part! The goblins watched, awed, as coloured lines of power rippled between the injured miners and the tiny figure of Jade, who danced as part of her pattern weaving.

Nuric sat up.

"Don't do that" said Jade absently as she continued to dance.

"She doesn't have a wand!" one of the village children cried, pointing.

"Silly" said Fyra "Frau Baronin Von Luytens is good enough not to need a wand; she is part English and has learned the English mysteries."

At length even the boy was looking better and his eyes fluttered open; and Jade slumped to the ground, spent.

"Where may My Lady rest?" demanded Torik, going forward to give Jade his arm in support.

That he should do so without now thinking that a witch might reject his touch, and that Jade took his arm gratefully had the villagers gasping.

"My cottage is just by there, Noble Witch!" said one woman, disentangling herself from her husband.

Jade smiled gratitude.

"Mama" said Ralph and wriggled to go to her.

"Fyra, you will guide his steps?" murmured Jade. Ralph, now walking in a rather unsteady way, was into everything. Fyra took him firmly by the hand.

Jade slept for about an hour and awoke to the goblin woman presenting her with a bowl of broth.

"It is not what the gracious witch is used to, but I hope it will give sustenance" whispered the woman.

"It smells delicious; do I take food from the mouth of your family though? For if so, as I am not pregnant I can live off my fat" said Jade.

"Please – we have enough broth for all!" said the woman.

"Then I thank you most heartily" said Jade, who did not turn up her nose at a good broth.

She drained the bowl and smiled.

"The gracious witch is the saviour of our men" said the goblin.

"I had one of those funny feelings it was the right time to come" said Jade "I'm no diviner; but I DO go with my hunches. I own the buildings here and the mines you see; I thought I should find out for myself what deficiencies needed to be put right. I trust my new factor; but I like to see things with my own eyes. Besides, he's an accountant; hasn't read anything about mining. I don't know much but I have read some so I guess I know a bit more than him. Damn but this village needs some educated people; I suppose there's been no reading and writing taught here?"

"No Gracious Witch; why would we need such?" said the woman. Bright eyed children were eavesdropping.

"To read about better techniques, safer ones; that allied with experience and knowledge gained by the knowledge of generations could make improvements. To have those skilled with healing spells; I suppose the news that goblins who can prove they have education may bear wands has not reached you?"

The woman gaped.

"But Lady, where would we get education?" asked her oldest son daringly.

"From NEXT year in the school I will be starting for goblins and mudbloods and others who need it" said Jade calmly. "I will send one who will teach all to read and write. Then, those who prove apt will learn magic in my school and help their community; by returning with good skills, or by returning to teach, or by going into the world to get highly paid jobs and sending money back to their family. And perhaps some to apprentice to those who make machines to improve the safety and efficiency too of the mine; steam powered lifts instead of ladders might be helpful and the same steam engines to pump out water; you are not telling me that the fall was not caused by waterlogging in upper chambers, the flow was classic plastic flow from water soaked soil."

"That was what did cause it Frau Baronin" said the miner "Or so we believe; there was much rain last week. It soaked in and abided within to cause the collapse of the shafts."

"And a drying charm allied with a steam pump might have averted that. I need a proper study done; and I shall pay English engineers to examine the mine. They will not despise and ignore the words of the locals as would German engineers, all of whom are likely to be human anyway. Nobody knows mining like goblins do; but I would as soon have educated goblins look at this, who will not be afraid to tell me straight what is needed."

"In England goblins may be engineers?" asked the oldest son breathlessly.

"In England, the goblin engineers condescend to consider that some humans might be clever enough to be engineers" said Jade dryly. "How are my patients?"

"Noble Baronin, they are none the worse!" said the miner "You have saved my life, all our lives; and at risk to yourself. We would all follow you anywhere you chose to ask!"

"I just ask that you all be patient while I get the improvements sorted out that you need" said Jade "I feel much drained still; Torik will come amongst you and take down particulars of what is needed. And if nobody minds I shall have another nap. Is Ralph behaving?"

"Please, Frau Baronin, the little girl did not think you would mind him playing with goblin children; I do not want to get her into trouble, but is she correct?" asked the woman fearfully.

"Oh utterly!" said Jade "Children are children; it's only adults who make a childish fuss about what race people are. Ralph won't even notice; and good job too" she added, rolling over to go back to sleep again.

Holding the roof up by sheer will – which she had been doing almost without noticing – had taken it out of her.

oOoOo

"I won't go so far as to say that the mine accident was fortunate, Frau Baronin, with that poor fellow losing his life; but it really could not have happened at a better time to win the trust of your people there" said Torik once they had returned to the Von Strang castle.

"Cynic" said Jade.

"Yes lady; one of us has to be" said Torik, who had been relieved that there seemed to be a link between his employer and her grim-visaged husband so that the news did not have to be broken that the Frau Baronin had risked her life saving goblins.

Wulf had merely kissed her hard and said,

"You could not have saved the one who died; I do not doubt that his death occurred with the fall of the roof. Even had you been there half an hour earlier you had not prevented his death."

Jade had nodded, accepting the truth of his words.

And Torik was grateful that Wulf, whom he feared in some measure as well as respected, took it as given that his wife WOULD risk her life for others, even goblins.

"Who can we put there to increase literacy and do such healing as is necessary?" asked Jade of Torik, Wulf and Ruprecht.

"Ritter" said Wulf without hesitation "He has the sense of duty that would agree to the task and the serious mind to apply himself to aiding with the rebuilding. He wishes to learn more about goblins; and that will aid him to do so. If he can train an adult to the level of literacy to be a permanent basic teacher that will be even better for when he comes on then to the school here."

Jade nodded.

Ritter was perfect.

He was also enough of a stuffed shirt to tie up any interfering wizards from the ministry in enough red tape to make them sick of it; Ritter understood regulations and how to manipulate them.

The time to be spent with her family was to be interrupted once more.

Herzog Von Frettchen turned up – with only a small retinue that Jade turned over to Fritti to feed in the kitchens – and a serious expression.

"I seek advice, my dear Nefrita – it is proper I think that I still think of you as Nefrita" he said.

Jade sighed.

"Aren't you big enough, old enough and ugly enough not to need your hand held Eduard?" she said.

"Charming as ever" he laughed, then sighed. "It is over the matter of an heir. You have spent a year with my nephew in Durmstrang; and have advised me of his deficiencies. His mother spoils him intermittently, his father ignores him and he is reared – more or less – by house elves that dare do nothing than let him have his indolent way. I had him to stay; and I had to thrash him for ordering an elf to bring him, will she nil she, a village girl. I suspect this is something he does at home; and I made him swear an unbreakable vow not to do this ever again. He is full of vice, slothful, unaware of the fact that position carries responsibility and quite loathsome. I NEED an heir; and since Anett Breuer turned me down I do not quite know what to do."

"The problem lies, Eduard, in the fact that you are rich, high born, and past the first flush of youth" said Jade crisply "And the sort of girls who would throw themselves at you find, I suspect, most of your sex appeal in the bulge in your robe that is your well stocked wallet. And of those who would look further and dream of a handsome young lover probably, if they are of the upper classes, have parents who see your position more as that of wealthy duke and upright member of the council rather than worrying if you have any other kind of upright member to satisfy their daughter. Those who would avoid you in concern of being seen as fortune hunters even though they feel the allure of your personal charm – you are to my mind a sexy man if I may say so, because of your self confidence as much as your mature good looks – are the ones you would want of course."

"You have not lost the ability to be blunt I see; I thank you for appreciating my personal er, charm" said Von Frettchen.

Jade shrugged.

"I told Agata you were too geriatric for me and recommended that she pursue you so you had a woman's guidance; that was before she knew who I was and I was not about to admit to my Wulf. Who's older than you as it happens" she grinned "Werewolves are very long lived – if they are much in wolf form. I take it you and Agata have not…..?"

"She's too forceful for me" said Von Frettchen "I do not like women who titter and have no minds of their own, but dammit! I don't want to be bossed by a schoolmarm in my own household!"

"Just as well you did not want to marry me then" said Jade "I am too much in the habit of telling you what to do. The only men I do not boss are those who do not let me – daddy, Wulf and my brother Erich. The real Von Strang. And I think my brother Seagh; who goes his own way. I can boss Romulus, but he doesn't care so long as I love him too. You are thinking, of course that you should be pragmatically Prussian and settle down with a girl of good stock who will give you lots of little ferret kittens?"

"It seems sensible" said Von Frettchen ignoring her pun on his name "But I do not want parents in law who will use and cling to me and drop my name to get enrichment and advancement."

"Eduard, Eduard, you are a fraud" said Jade "You're a romantic at heart; you have to be to have gone haring off supporting the Young Siegfried of a prince. You want to fall in love and to have a girl love you for yourself!"

Von Frettchen looked sheepish.

"I fear you are correct" he said.

"I can give you advice; but you won't like it" said Jade.

"Give it anyway; you give uncannily good advice and if I don't like it I shall have to be as unspeakably brave as a Prussian junker is supposed to be" he said.

"All right then; go incognito, lose the attendants, and get a real job with real people. It will need to be in some slight supervisory capacity; you just are so not capable of coping with being pushed around by slapheads if you take too menial a job. Perhaps – perhaps you have come down in the world? Used to be a factory manager and were for some reason redundant?"

"The factory burned down so there was no more job?" he suggested

"And you suspected foul play and insurance fraud and got blacklisted for asking questions and must take what job you can get to keep body and soul together" nodded Jade.

"Alas, only too possible" said Von Frettchen.

"You need a job where women of some intelligence work; factory hands are dulled by hard labour even if they start out bright" said Jade. "A pity that you have to move slowly or I might suggest you marry the discarded – and incidentally unwilling – mistress of the father of a schoolmate of mine."

"What's the problem?"

"She's a goblin" said Jade dryly.

"Ah; yes" he nodded "Poor girl; a disgraceful and ungentlemanly piece of conduct. I have found more in goblins than I expected; but even if there was affection, I could not consider it. I would lose the support I have from those of the upper ranks of society. You have law suits over compensation in hand?"

"I blackmailed the creep" said Jade "Which comes to the same thing. The 'pay up voluntarily or I take you to court and spread it all across the papers' style of blackmail. He came across."

"So would I; but then I know you" said Von Frettchen. "Where should I work?"

"In the ministry" said Jade "In the Goblin Relations Office; it will, too give you the opportunity to spy on them from below to see how much of your edicts are actually getting carried out. And to find a girl who doesn't scream if she comes face to face with goblins; which I suspect some do. My little group had to grit their teeth when we went to heal goblins of the Black Fever. I'll have to dress you."

"Metaphorically I hope; not literally."

"Oh even a duke ought to be able to pull on his robe, tie his shoelaces and wave bye-bye" said Jade.

"Your prejudices are on display"

"Oh yes; so they are" she said blithely "You need good quality clothing that has aged; been darned perhaps. You could admit to having a house elf still tied by blood; which as you'll need a small and modest apartment to continue in your mythical life will be just as well because I don't suppose you've a clue as to how to shop and cook for yourself. No, thought not" as he looked disconcerted. "Pick one who has initiative and impress on him or her that you are just Eduard Frettchen, and are not to be boasted about whilst shopping. The rest is up to you. I advise you to try not to make the lie direct to any girl you are interested in; misdirect rather than lying as I did. It does make for a more comfortable relationship subsequently."

He nodded.

"I shall doubtless not enjoy myself; but I agree to your advice. I want a girl who is strong enough to be my helpmate, who will tell me straight if I am making a fool of myself in any matter and who will back me. Lucius is a lucky man; and how like him to manage to find four that are sufficiently strong!"

"Oh Lucius is a law unto himself!" laughed Jade. "Now go away and let me organise your new life for you so I may enjoy the rest of my holiday!"


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Jade had volunteered to be the staff member on duty at the Lodge where the pupils for Durmstrang foregathered ready to be taken on to the school in its blood red carriages. The other staff had readily agreed; it was not a popular duty and was often decided by drawing lots, the one who drew the paper with the black spot being considered to be the loser. Jade's suggestion that the duty might be decided more merrily by playing 'paper-scissors-stone' had been met with chilly disapproval.

Jade liked people and actually looked forward to the duty. It would not please such old enemies as Claudette Reynoult that she was now officially a staff member; and ideally one would not go from schoolchild to teacher in one's old school in the following year because of preconceived ideas about one as a schoolgirl. However, that could not be helped; and as Hedda Schrempf had taken on the job as teacher of the Dark Arts with scarcely any break once Helmut Hesse had been rendered inoperative as one might say by Dumbledore there was something of a precedent. As for those who had been members in the last year of the English Customs Club they had been instilled with the English custom that one might be informal to professors who were part of the club but must have the self discipline to be properly respectful in school.

Hence when Elfleda arrived early she looked round to check there was nobody else before hugging Jade.

Jade kissed her.

"I shall be hard on you, my Vöglein" she said.

"Oh I know that Nefrita – I mean Frau Professor Luytens!" said Elfleda "But I do love you so and I wanted to say hello properly!"

"I love you too; all you babes that are my ex fags" said Jade "And you will look out for a protégé of mine, will you not?"

"Oh YES!" agreed Elfleda fervently.

"His name is Beremud Gerecht; and I want him to fag for Zhanargul as well as you three second year girls" said Jade "I have written to her and told her that she inherits some of my fags, who will also, I am sure, look to the needs of her lady in waiting Saula; I told her I leave her those who are best able to look out for trouble. She has an enemy in her own country, a wicked uncle. I wrote to her too of Beremud, who is a bright boy and who will do well for the patronage of the well born also."

"He is then like me not well born?" said Elfleda.

"Sweeting, he is as much less well born than you as you are of a duke" said Jade "He is a brave boy to make his way; his parents have sacrificed much since he was born to save enough to send him to Durmstrang; they are tenants of mine. I applaud their ambition and his. I think he can go far; drag him to the ECC for me if he has forgotten that I suggested it."

Elfleda nodded solemnly!

oOoOo

Hot on Elfleda's tail was Konstanty Masicwicz; as head boy, the first ever head boy, taking his responsibilities seriously. He and his little sister were the only Poles; and little Zdena was starting this year, white with excitement and almost ready to be sick from it. Jade shook hands with Konstanty and greeted his little sister who gazed at her with solemn and slightly suspicious eyes.

"You join the ECC young Zdena and there'll be older ones there who'll shield you from the misguided fools who seek to get at your brother through you" said Jade. "Konstanty, it would do you no harm to join as well; it is based on similar English clubs wherein troubles may also be aired informally, and the head of school usually belongs."

"I thought it was just about how to use an umbrella" said Konstanty.

"That's because it was a disguise; for those of us who longed to overthrow Odessa and our fags for their protection" said Jade. "We nearly invited you and Serafina in but we were not sure you'd stay out of the fighting and it really was supposed to be those of us over seventeen. Bossing fags about not getting involved is another matter. It was no insult but for your peace of mind we did not involve you."

"Well I am glad you thought of it; we should have wanted to fight" said Konstanty "And I was over seventeen by the time you did."

"Then my apologies; but do come now. There are undefeated pockets of Odessa and in YOUR country it has never been defeated; nor in Russia" said Jade. "You know I am English; I teach such techniques as are used against dark wizards."

Kostanty laughed.

"Ironic that you teach the Dark Arts – and are so good at wielding them."

"I don't have to LIKE wielding them. A demonstration, however, can prevent having to fight sometimes. The dark arts are fascinating; and I study them to defeat them. You do not study to ZH; but in the club you will learn to produce a corporeal patronus, that has many uses. Actually most kids in the club over fifteen can manage it; and we're working with the younger ones. The Eulenspeigel twins have no trouble and they're not fourteen yet."

"They're also contrary and the source of most of the mischief in the school" said Konstanty.

"Oh yes; quite true. But at least they're the source of mischief not nastiness" said Jade "And when you catch them breaking bounds at midnight will cheerfully take whatever impot you set them, whether it's ten reps of 'I thought I heard a voice that said 'sleep no more; Macbeth hath murdered sleep; sleep that knits the ravelled sleave of care'' or spending the weekend cleaning bedrooms because they should be better acquainted with bed than they apparently are, or for the same reason going to bed at six o'clock for a week. Though I'd not risk the latter; too much time with nothing to do but plot. The clever but essentially decent ones get up to mischief; the stupid or the miserable ones get up to nastiness. Some kids are nasty because they know nothing at home but nastiness; or something makes them so miserable they need to lash out. I pass this on free to our head boy because you're capable of unravelling the misery. It's why I recommended you to Agata Bacsó last year."

"You recommended me?"

"Yes; as she had never had a prefect system she wanted to discuss it with one who had known it working" said Jade "Ah, I hear the beat of wings."

oOoOo

The first contingent to arrive was by carriage, from Russia; where all the Russian children had already gathered a day or more before. They were under the tender care of Serafina Payutinina, proudly wearing her deputy head girl's badge. Her brother Kyril, now a second year, was proudly helping to shepherd the new first years, with rather more efficient aid from another of Jade's one time fags, Arkadi Rasputin. Jade had not drawn Arkadi into the blood group, but she liked him well enough and nodded to him. One of those in his train was the little sister of Antonina Kostina; a child called Korytsa. Jade and Antonina had never been close; the Russian girl was arrogant and inclined to be opinionated, though even so, she had not the hardness that Jade saw on her sister's face. There were three other Russian new ones; a solemn faced little boy who seemed to have an air of aplomb; and a little girl who was, to Jade's mind, clearly part fey; and likely part dryad at that. There was that about her that reminded Jade of Fagia, the Prince Peak dryad, and a faint greenish sheen to the girl's dark hair. The fourth Russian was another little girl who looked scared and determined and stuck close to Serafina. Four Russians in one year; whether that was a statistic caused by chance or the fall of Odessa Jade could not guess. Below Serafina, apart from the two second years, there was only two other Russian boys; Stiv Molotov, proud to be a new prefect, and Vladimir Chernykrov, whom Jade detested. He was a sadist who had enjoyed helping the cruel de Witt torture younger ones. Jade suspected it was partly to try to prove himself because his blood status was somewhat dubious; but it was also partly his nature. She had made sure to drop a compulsion on HIM last year that he would have a belly ache if he ever contemplated hurting people and she hoped it would help.

Next in were some more eastern Europeans; the Czech contingent. This included another younger sister just starting; Bronislava Frolika, sister of Stepanka, whom Jade had disliked, and Jaromir, now in the upper sixth. Jaromir was a dangerous bully in that he never lost his temper; and Jade had needed to explain patiently to Agata Bacsó that he was not a leader and not actually prefect material. The Czech wizarding world, or at least its upper echelons did not seem pleasant; Jade did not like the Czech girl now in the second either. No first years with them, but one with the swiftly following Bulgarian contingent under the care of the Asimov twins who would take on those fags not passed to Zhanargul Nurtazin, including fellow Bulgar Diliana Zhikova, who had fagged for Cacilia with them. The second year child with them already fagged, Jade was not sure for whom, she had not taken to the child whose bold gaze and sneering look had not been endearing. The new little girl looked rather as if she was prepared to brazen out the Durmstrang experience.

Zhanargul and her attendant Saula turned up next; those from what Jade referred to as 'The Stans' came together, being few in number, Zhanargul and Saula from Kazakhstan and a new child, whom Zhanargul brought straight over, seeing Jade in attendance, to introduce as Moxsuda Gylana from Uzbekistan. The child gave Jade a rather calculating look and tried to give a charming smile.

"Welcome to Durmstrang, Moxsuda; our first from your country for a while" said Jade "Zhanargul, congratulations on your prefecture; I need a word with you."

Zhanargul bobbed a curtsey as Jade led her into an antechamber.

"What can I do for you Professor…..Von Luytens it is now?"

"Yes and in the English Custom Club it is still Nefrita" said Jade "And as I'm interfering in the danger in your life it's ECC business."

Zhanargul grinned.

"At least I may hope to be safe at school; I am aware not to go off on solitary walks and you made it clear to me that any attempts to persuade me to go home because my parents were in danger was likely to be a trap."

"What exactly is the danger? Your father spoke of a wicked uncle."

"Yes; he wishes to enforce old fashioned custom that females may not rule. I disagree. My father has prepared me well and this is the twenty first century, but he would go with the silly attitudes of the more benighted muggles of our region. I have every reason to believe that he dabbles with Genii and demons."

"And you think you're safe at school? Zhanargul, have you any idea what demons and Genii are? No? They are of the fey, and though dabbling with the summoning of Great Form Spirits is intensely dangerous – I shouldn't like to do it – being on the receiving end is worse. The fey travel through an other space partly interactant with the reality with which we are familiar yet invisible. The artefact of the Peverel brothers in the Beadle the Bard tales known as the invisibility cloak was woven from the substance of feyspace, probably with the aid of a Great Form Spirit. They need blood to keep them in a solid form and once they have form they're not that particular whose blood that is. They could jerk you into and through this space and carry you anywhere. I had already considered making you my blood sister to be able to trace you; now I am more convinced than ever that it is necessary. Will you take the step of blood magic for your own protection?"

"I trust you and what you say is necessary" said Zhanargul "I know that Jade Snape is part of some blood pact for the protection of Harry Potter in England and since you are really Jade Snape you ought to know; it is the same thing?"

"Exactly the same" said Jade "You'd be Harry's bloodkin too through it; and we could all channel power to you to defend yourself even after you have left school and must fight your battles in your own country. It would, actually, help convince your fellow countrymen that you are powerful enough. We do not normally combine – and certainly not for such as the Triwizard or exams – but for healing or extraordinary events then one may become a focus. They all gave me power to save some goblin miners trapped underground not long ago" she added. "You read daddy's book, 'Blood magic, love magic'?"

"I did; I wondered if it might be offered to help make sweeping changes in Europe with me as a tool – no, that is an insult to you, a poor choice of words, an ALLY – in such."

"Well you've taken it all on board very well so I'm going to blood you in now and the hell with arithmantically correct times" said Jade taking out a silver knife. "We'll do a proper blooding with the rest at leisure; blooded to me you'll get most of the benefits anyhow."

Zhanargul slit her palm obediently and gasped as Jade's blood mingled with hers, bringing the touch of many others with it, showing her the greater loving family.

"Jade – oh I have never KNOWN such a closeness!" she gasped.

"The drawback is that you won't want to marry anyone not blooded; so either you'll have to pick someone who is prepared to give his all to us as we give our all to each and every one; or pick one of those already blooded" said Jade. "The three little girls that will fag for you are blood group; you can feel Elfleda coming in to join us; ah, Vöglein, see Zhanargul will be easier to protect for you three now."

Elfleda hugged Zhanargul and Jade saw the startled, wistful, then delighted look on the girl's face.

Jade was relieved. She knew too much and yet too little about the powerfully magical fey who coveted the ability to retain physical form some of the lesser fey – including those who called themselves the high fey or high sidhe – and who used the ambitions of foolish wizards and fey to gain temporary power in hopes of stealing or forming a body by some of the less savoury forms of blood magic. Such a one had been trying to gain access to the physical world through a painting by Joyce Elliot, muggle but sensitive mother of Sarah at Prince Peak. If some megalomaniac nutter was actually ready to invite them in for his petty ambitions, there might be trouble.

Jade wondered if it had been these individuals who had come up with the self punishment compulsion on elves because they were able to feed on their distant relatives' pain as boggarts fed on fear. Breaking the compulsions on more elves became therefore even more important.

oOoOo

When they got back to the main meeting room others had arrived; the Romanian contingent and those of the Low Countries. Pompilia Constantinescu led the Romanians and it was plain that she resented that she had not been one chosen as a prefect. As did Jaromir Frolik and the Belgian girl in charge of the low countries children, Claudette Reynoult, who was actually telling her contingent and her crony Calvina Leckkessel, an early arriving German girl that it was because of the spite of that Nefrita Von Strang.

Jade came quietly up behind her.

"Actually, Fraulein Reynoult" she said, making Claudette jump "It was YOUR spite and your willingness to lie to get others into trouble, including your own little brother, which was one of the factors that militated against you being chosen as a prefect. Another was your willingness to cast unforgivable curses at small people. You have not the qualities of leadership; a bully is never a leader. And you will also try to remember, difficult though that is for your limited wits, that I am no longer Nefrita Von Strang but Frau Professor Von Luytens. And as I start with a new married name on a new academic year I will try to make a fresh start with you to be an objective teacher. Try not to give me cause to remember that the schoolgirl Nefrita disliked you."

Claudette gave her a look of anger tinged with fear; Jade had placed an image before the girl's face for using the cruciatus curse on one of Jade's fags and left it tied in as a compulsion that if she ever used it again the image came back; and it was an image that lived as Claudette's worst nightmare.

Her brother Guiscard gave Jade a half apologetic smile; he was a bit of a weasel but more civilised than his sister.

The Dutch boy who was the only other one with them nodded civilly to Jade; Sigismundus de Brujin had been fag to Franziska Schiff and he knew that his lady had rated Nefrita Von Strang's teaching highly; which as he would be taking ZP's this year interested him more than anything else.

The Romanians were a large contingent and the girl now in the second, Anisoara, had been listening.

"Please Frau Von Luytens will you start over with me also?" she said.

"I will; as I did when I coached you in Arithmancy" said Jade "I hope my anger taught you some valuable lessons that spite to others does not make you look better."

Somehow she doubted that the girl had learned; but you never knew. And teaching her Dark Arts she might learn more about the child and what made her so keen to be noticed that she would be unkind to others. And as well as Nikolai Nagy, now in the fifth, the Romanian contingent had two new ones, both boys, one richly clad in new robes, the other in secondhand and ill fitting ones, who was busy boasting that he was pure blooded. He had intelligent and curious eyes.

Jade crooked a finger to him.

"What's your name, lad?" she asked in Romanian.

"Beryx Szabo, Frau Professor" said the boy.

"Blood status is of less importance than how hard you work to maintain your place" said Jade "I know you want to have something to boast of because you are ashamed of your relative poverty; but there will be others here whose parents love them enough to go without to see their children through school. You may be told otherwise by fools and idiots; but I tell you now, that if you have the love of your family, you are rich beyond many of the poor little rich brats here who are palmed off onto servants and barely know their parents."

He looked startled.

"But Frau Professor, that may be so, but if I am to get ahead, I must impress those to whom such things as birth status and wealth matter; and then I can pay my parents back for their sacrifice by doing well" he said.

"See that boy over there? His name is Jochen Wiesel. He is a prefect. You will go to him and tell him that Frau Professor Luytens advised you to ask to be his fag. He has the spirit to take him far; I hope you have too. He is not without influence for impressing the right people – impressing them with his hard work and intelligence, his decent behaviour to little ones. Act the gentleman, which is to say courteous to all and temperate of manner, and work hard and you will do well."

"Why do you take an interest in me ma'am?"

"Because my adoptive father was a prickly type keen to emphasise his family; and he made some mistakes and was glad to finally get over them. I see him in you and would wish for my love for him to help you avoid making the same mistakes as him. You shall join the ECC; and THERE you will make contacts that will help you more than any mere ducal heir might."

"There are ducal heirs here?"

"One anyway – until his uncle begets a son of his own" said Jade "And as a professor I shall keep my personal opinion of him to myself because it leaves uncomplimentary so far behind as to make the term seem gentle. Now! You have something to boast of; that you know about a club where people practise English techniques and spells, and run at five thirty in the morning in the English fashion."

"Please Frau Professor, why is that necessary?" he asked, suppressing a shudder "And are the English techniques really so good?"

"The first because it builds stamina to sustain spells or chants longer; the second, yes, because the English cast without word or wand. I have been raised English; and it is in attitude as well as technique. And so I seek too to do a favour for Jochen by giving him a fag who I think may have much potential. And why not ask your countryman too? You did not seem at odds with him though he is obviously wealthy."

"Corneliu is all right; though all he lives for is music. But I like his tunes" said Beryx.

"Then both of you had better take voluntary chanting classes on Saturdays with me; I know full well the music mad. My schoolchum Volodya was hopeless when he had a tune in his head" she grinned. "Run now before another claims him!"

Beryx only half believed anything he was told; but Jade's charisma had him doing what she suggested. Corneliu WAS a good sort really even if he was the son of an important man. And they might as well try this club.

oOoOo

Baard Trollkettil as prefect had firmly organised a meeting of all Scandinavians to come on together, and Jade nodded approval. He was a little arrogant, but obviously a good planner too. He was one she suggested as prefect to give him the responsibility that should develop his character. He brought with him Yorick Thorwaldsen and his little sister Sofie who had to remember not to hug Jade and contented herself by beaming at her, as did Kjell Orn, blood group like Sofie and ready to fag for the Asimov twins. Hrafn Svensson in their year, from Iceland, was also there, a girl from the year above, Baard's brother Harald in the fourth and three new ones. One of them was Kjell's little sister Sonja who rubbernecked cheerfully; another was the brother of Baard and Harald who Jade vaguely recalled she had heard referred to as Stig. The third child was having Sofie in her ear explaining at the top of her voice that Finnish magic was very important, Frau Professor Von Luytens said so.

This made the girl turn to look curiously at Jade; and Sofie led her over.

"This is Pirkko" said Sofie, proud of remembering to pronounce both k's in the name.

"Are you from the same community as Antti Laakkonen by any chance and Hanna-Leena Tommila?" asked Jade. Finland had not got so great a population that its wizarding community was likely to be very big.

"Yes; but she is orphaned and he is no good so my mother assumes that the English school is no great shakes" said Pirkko. Jade laughed.

"Well apart from my last year here it produced me and gave me eleven 'O' grade ZP equivalents and led to much of the study for my seven ZH's" she said "Antti is, I'm afraid, known to his fellows as the Finnish Flobberworm; a nice child but utterly unaware of how to study let alone how to have fun. If you do not enjoy it here, your parents need have no fear as to your attainments at Prince Peak."

"My father is dead" said Pirkko.

"I apologise for being insensitive" said Jade. "Sofie will help you settle in; and be a kind ear if you need one."

"Thank you; I am not in need of such" said Pirkko.

"Oh things change kid" said Jade, pulsing Sofie with a suggestion to look out for the girl. The hardness was a shell; and probably part of her grief for her father. Or something more; Sofie would find out. Sofie was an efficient little thing.

oOoOo

Beremud arrived at this point with another German boy; presumably they had come part of the way at least together on the train. The other boy looked better off than Beremud; but as his eyes followed Beremud's as he quested for Jade, presumably her protégé had mentioned that he had a sponsor.

Jade beckoned them over and pulsed Zhanargul.

"You have made a friend already? That is good" said Jade.

"This is Lindhard Natterzahn, Frau Professor" said Beremud "He can talk to snakes!" his tone was half disbelieving if impressed.

**ssss**_You are a Parselmouth, young one_?**ssss** asked Jade, slipping into Parseltongue.

**ssss**_Yes Frau professor_**ssss** hissed the boy the same way.

"Well it's a rare skill and tends to run in families" said Jade. "Many believe it is the province of dark wizards; I hope you will also help to prove that belief wrong. It is because those of us who admire the snake and understand its allure can seem cold blooded when we use pure logic to make decisions; and it is good practice for us not to get too immersed in snakiness but let ourselves reach out in warmth too. It gives you another tool to use in chanting and makes the snake summoning spell particularly powerful for you; but there will be those who condemn you for it. It is good that you have a good friendship starting with so excellent a youth as Beremud who will bring you also to the ECC where you will meet others who do not fear your unusual skill. Fear breeds hatred; foolishness, but too many people ARE foolish. Zhanargul, you promised to take my protégé as your fag, can you manage to find room for his friend too? Zhanargul can also speak Parseltongue, the language of snakes. As can her other fags; and as she is a princess with a wicked uncle, that may be useful Beremud, I want you to try to learn some from Lindhard; and we may see later about other matters. I know it is possible to learn some by listening so it should too be possible to learn by concentrating. I…. Lindhard, when you know Beremud better, if you are close enough you may convey some knowledge to his blood by slitting thumbs to exchange a drop."

"Is that blood magic? It's part of the Dark Arts isn't it? They fascinate me as well as they do Beremud!" said Lindhard.

"Blood Magic is neither dark nor light; it may be easily abused and used as dark magic" said Jade "The fascination of the dark arts is its variability; but you do not need to embrace them and be drawn into their dangerous coils to learn about them. You will learn more in my first lessons" she added. "Is it all right to take both, Zhanni?"

"Yes, I am willing" said Zhanargul, who was still coming to terms with being a Parselmouth.

"Good; you boys go make friends with the Romanian boys" said Jade. They all had that about them that could have been hardened into the usual cruel hard Durmstranger; but if caught early enough and firmly made to be helpful by the ECC they should all be all right.

oOoOo

"Excuse me Frau Professor" a voice spoke at Jade's elbow. She turned to see a small boy with bold eyes and a lot going on behind the eyes.

"Yes, small fry?" said Jade.

"My name is Sigismund Tóth; I am from Hungary; I have just arrived with Erzebet Czerny" his voice held distaste and Jade could not argue with that. Erzebet was another sometime crony of Claudette Reynoult. He added "Frau Professor Bacsó advised me to look out for you; she described you very well, petite and beautiful and pale but full of fire."

"The Frau Professor is most complimentary" said Jade trying not to sound too ironic; since she had also heard Agata laughingly describe her as 'a moonbeam on felix felicis and a hurryup charm'. Jade and Agata got on very well now. "Why did the Frau Professor recommend you to me?"

"Because my family are poor relations of hers and she sponsors us to school, only she does not wish to acknowledge this because it would be improper; but it would not be improper if you were to be seen as my sponsor as you teach for only a year here. It is her wish that I and my siblings should help change things in Hungary but I will need contacts. And I do not want the Czerny girl to be one of them" he added with distaste.

"You are wise; she is not good to know. But politics at your age? Well I suppose I was dabbling in politics as young" said Jade. "See the boys I was just talking to? Go to them and make yourself known as one I take an interest in; I sponsor young Beremud's interests particularly. They will not be amiss for another member; and tell them that they should ask the older fags of Fraulein Nurtazin about Marauding."

Yes, that was it; if they were Marauders they would be set in a path where the strong will she could sense in each of them would be guided down a fruitful path.

Sofie and Leva and Elfleda and too Kjell would guide them in that; because they were ripe to be confirmed as the second group of Durmstrang Marauders.

And it appeared that the Asimov twins had been joined by the Eulenspiegel twins, the other half of THAT group of Marauders.

oOoOo

Most of the rest of the school had arrived by the time Jade had put together rather forcibly a possible group of new Marauders; arriving from disparate parts of Germany, from Austria, the Balkans – the one Balkan girl, Velma Zukic, a prefect, arrived with the two Italian girls – Switzerland and Spain. Wencelada was alone from Spain, but came in company with Herr Professor Orlando Carcano who boomed his great welcome to Jade, enfolded her in a bear hug and kissed her on both cheeks, thanking her exuberantly for recommending such excellent helpmates for filming animals as Fraulein Kathleen Delaney and her friend Anastasia Strong.

As Kathleen and Anastasia seemed to have come with him as well, which would be entirely unnecessary had they been purely professional contacts, and Anastasia at least blushed, it looked as though Orlando Carcano had been taken with the need to protect the muggle and squib women in a very physical way; and Jade jerked her wand surreptitiously to check if they were pregnant yet. Anastasia was; she was uncertain about Kathleen.

Jade beamed at them.

"You'll be back to England for Cynthia to birth? Due in November, isn't she?" she asked.

Anastasia nodded.

"Orlando has said he will take us at the half term Halloween holiday and collect us when they are happy to be on their own together again" she said.

The women had become friends after Kathleen's son Callum had befriended Anastasia's daughter Cynthia and prophesied an attack on Anastasia that Sirius Black had averted. It made a slightly convoluted family tree that Cynthia and Callum were now married if both their mothers were having babies with Orlando; but Gooder and the Cynner as the young couple were known to Hogwarts friends would take it all in their stride. Well Jade could not complain about a spate of babies if she would interfere in the lives of those she liked; Von Frettchen had written that he had met a delightful girl who might not be highly educated but she knew enough to stop the casting of the killing curse by hitting the caster in the mouth with her handbag and to fearlessly help to interfere in unravelling corruption. Good; he deserved a good mate and Ignaz Von Frettchen deserved to be disinherited. Franziska had written that she had wondered about other half siblings and had discovered two more, one of whom she was bringing on as she should have been at school the previous year but it was too much to expect the child to adapt to starting the new year without some preparation; and one whose mother had ended up as a prostitute that she and Gennic had rescued and took the liberty of leaving at Schloss Von Strang with Anett and Mortimer and would Jade mind if in the future she had to flee with Gennic seeing if there was a teaching post for her. And on top of that was Herr Rebet – Ihor now she was a staff member – and his half goblin potioneer. And all her own fault for stirring the cauldron of their lives.

Jade mentally shrugged.

People needed stirring so they did not stick to the bottom of the pot of life.

And her family's stirring generally brought to the fore by the one new Swiss little girl and the Austrian boy making friends on the basis that they had to come to Durmstrang because neither had been clever enough for the English school on the Prinzhorn and it was fortunate that they were both near purebred so they could come to a school with some academic standards and not have to go to Beauxbatons that was moreover full of French people.

Jade had to grin at the thought that Durmstrang was now second best for those from Austria and Switzerland. And if they had WANTED to go to Prince Peak they would have no racism issues; and she whistled for Kjell's sister Sonja who was looking superfluous to tell her to collect the two new ones for the ECC.

Once you started interfering you almost had to continue.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"All small flowers of childhood tenderly installed in the fertile soil of their Alma Mater, though with the state of most small boys the whimisical simile does call to mind an excess of dung" said Jade cheerfully to Agata Bacsó.

"You have a warped imagination my dear" said Agata, mildly.

"It's taken you this long to notice?" Jade grinned.

"Just commenting…. Did you meet a child called Sigismund Tóth?"

"Yes, I installed him in the group most likely to be the first ever in the school next to my ex fags to earn a prefect's impot" said Jade "My own protégé's among them; I dumped them on various prefects as fags. Zhanargul came across with the jolly information that her uncle is into raising great form spirits so we might have a little spot of bother; I'll take out the senior Marauder group – that's the two sets of twins – and chant up some rather major wards against fey before we go to bed. No point having unwanted surprises."

"How do you take something that terrible so calmly?"

"Because, Agata, I've been practising taking terrible things calmly or otherwise since I was a small child; I'd not like to try to summon and command a great form spirit but I'm fairly positive I can banish any that can be summoned without breaking out into too much of a sweat. Your library here has some interesting stuff on them, that builds on the rather esoteric stuff Lucius has in his library. If I have trouble I'll call in dad and my brother Seagh. He IS fey; nobody knows more about irritating fey than Seagh. He hates them. And I've made a blood pact with Zhanargul; wherever she is, I know. She's as safe as I can make her and that's one reason I'm glad to stay on a year, as well as having more or less promised you."

"Well if you say you have it under control" Agata was reassured "I trust not only your abilities, Jade, but your ability to assess them fairly and without exaggeration."

"I HAVE rather made a speciality of Fey magic" said Jade. "And there's enough in the Bactrian texts I've been working on to give me some insights into very ancient uses of summoning of fey forms. Most people however stick to dementors who are the weakest and most easily controlled of the great form spirits; sort of the house elf of the great fey world, pushed around by everyone."

"That ISN'T very comforting" said Agata. Jade laughed.

"It is to me; dementors are child's play" she said. "We Snapes all cut our magical teeth on Dementors as you might say. And the more powerful the great form, the more magical it is; the more magical it is, the less it likes electricity. And the ECC casts the lightning bolt spell with facility now."

"THAT I find comforting" said Agata "The destruction of dementors using it at the ministry was most impressive."

"Scared Von Frettchen too" said Jade with satisfaction "I like him well enough but I DO like to keep him off balance….. he ran screaming from the stern schoolmarm I see; came to me for advice about who to marry and declaring you too scary."

Agata laughed.

"German men don't like a woman too forceful; I don't think we'd have suited. He isn't very restful, and it does leave me free to pursue my recreation where I will; though you've robbed me of Orlando as an occasional lover by presenting him with two wives. Well he swears he plans to marry them both, English fashion."

"Well they deserve a good, reliable man; they've both had their kicks" said Jade. "I never realised you and he had anything going; I do apologise."

"Oh it wasn't serious for either of us" said Agata "A relief of the tension school children engender. I have a more serious relationship with Attila, who is an academician and does not mind a forceful woman."

"Is Sigismund your son?" asked Jade bluntly.

Agata paled.

"You guessed? Yes he is…. I have him boarded with a cousin, and his supposed younger siblings are actually cousins…. I would have lost the school for having an illegitimate child. I think he is Attila's but I am not sure….. I have not actually used Scarpin's revellaspell to find out. I thought he would be happier with a proper family."

"I think when he has settled in, you should tell him" said Jade. "Then he will be happier about why you must be hard on him. He accepts that the headmistress cannot sponsor; but I think if he finds out under his own steam he will resent you. Emphasise that being the illegitimate son of an unemployable teacher would not have given him so good a life, and how much you appreciate his adoptive parents. He knows something is going on; he didn't say anything but looking back there was a tension….."

"I do wish your advice was not always both excellent and logical and yet distasteful" said Agata.

"Well I know how I'd feel in his shoes" said Jade "And he's as unwholesomely clever as both his parents as well as looking enough like Attila Nagy for me not to need a revellaspell; now I know who he was reminding me of. You ought to tell Attila too."

"He knows; he agreed to the decision. We've both visited him, Aunt Agata and her friend. And he warned that because he sees Uncle Attila as family he too will be distant. You see, I have learned from you; learned to warn him before he comes to school that being teacher's pet is not desirable."

"That is good. But let the child know that it is BECAUSE you love him that you have not brought him up – lay on thick about the dangers of opposing Odessa too. It's a white lie but one he'll accept more than the complex, but essentially adult reasons you and Attila had. I will be his contact, and love him for you in the ECC. And in the holidays you can see more of him, show him your love."

Agata nodded.

"You are right. Let me know when you think him settled."

Jade chuckled.

"Since there was talk of seeking secret passages, I should say not long" she said. "A good and healthy occupation for little horrors to be up to when they should be sleeping the sleep of the just. By the by, I should warn you, you may lose Ihor; I've not had a chance to speak to him but he has been enthusiastic about a potioneer he met in Kiev."

"What's the problem in that?"

"She's a half goblin; and your parents would NOT accept him marrying her – if indeed there's any romantic connection. Which I'm not yet sure about. But you have a need to know. If he DOES marry her, I'll take him in the free school and Cacilia Von Freyer can come and teach here; and what she may lack in experience, she'll impress the idiot parents instead by having a 'Von'."

"I love your cynicism my dear" said Agata "NOT I fear misplaced. Oh dear, I'm sort of used to Ihor; but then Cacilia is a good girl and I'd be comfortable working with her. Not a word of this better reach Magdalene Meyer."

"As a Ministry spy she ought to be glad of the ecumenism of your staff; Orlando with a muggle and a squib, and Ihor with a half goblin" said Jade innocently, then grinned as Agata glowered at her. "Leave Murky Magdalene to me; I'll legilimens her regularly and modify her memory at need. If he hasn't made up his mind in the next year he probably isn't going to. I sort of intimated by the by that I'd teach a voluntary chanting class on Saturdays; are you happy with that?"

"More than; and I'll make the announcement at supper. Any chance you can bring any on to exam level? It would have to be the English exam but the English exams are honoured."

"The Asimov twins, not a problem, and far enough to run informal classes in their lower sixth year too; and with tutorials to take them to NEWT level. Then I'll take them into my school for a while and let you have Volodya, so they have a year away from their schoolfellows, because it is NOT ideal to go straight back into your own school teaching. It isn't ideal to go straight into teaching, but if you've experienced life I guess it's not so bad; teachers going straight from school can get a teensy bit childish. Though on the plus side you haven't lost the habit of academe."

"Zlatko, like you, will NEVER lose the habit of academe" said Agata dryly "I heard he was discovered by Ihor in the library last year at midnight looking up how to delay the action on a jinx to drop on some of his favourite enemies to develop over the holidays. I ask you, what child does library work for a prank….. no, don't answer that, not with the look you're wearing."

"I thought that was what the library was for" said Jade mildly "My little sister Lilith has been heard to express the opinion that the only way a jape can be successful is with library work and yet more library work. Her first school jape involved delving into muggle science to make the entire school speak with silly voices from the effect of a harmless gas…..aren't you glad you don't have her creative mischief at your school? Albus, unless the rumours of his retiring are true, will have to keep her at least eight years too, to ensure she's over seventeen because she went up two years early; and still leads a gang of reprobates that makes both sets of middle school twins here look staid and well behaved."

"May the powers have mercy!" said Agata !

"Perhaps that's why he's thinking of retiring" said Jade. "No, it's because he's adopted children, and like dad and you very properly does not want to spend their school lives being dad and the head."

"Perhaps I should have sent Sigismund to Prince Peak" said Agata.

"Oh talk about it with him; tell him to see how he feels about it at the end of the year" said Jade "He'll feel no end chuffed that you'd give him the chance to decide for himself. Oh, and if the group he's with are deciding to Maraud, you can tell him there are Marauders at Prince Peak too."

"You have explained but I still think it's a difficult concept to understand how Marauders can be both a pillar of the school and yet up to the most mischief" sighed Agata.

"The mischief is to keep alert and practised to fight enemies" said Jade patiently "And to pay back bullies to protect the vulnerable. Marauders fix things; whether that's as simple as jinxing a bully into a ball, whipping round to pay off a fellow schoolmate's debts to stop him having external trouble or using the class seer to predict the world cup second round results to stitch up a bookie who's cheated someone's dad. Or fighting dark wizards and great form fey. All that mischief-aligned library work teaches library skills to look up how to deal with serious trouble in a hurry; and gives a working knowledge of where odd and esoteric works are and what's in them. I bet I know more about the less frequented ends of your library than anyone; and I had to SHOW the kids most of the secret passages, and I found most of them during the week we were up for the first task. Perfect to move about doing guerrilla warfare if we'd got occupied by Odessa. Mischief counts. Mostly it's good clean fun that keeps your brighter and more easily bored spirits from harmful mischief; sometimes it comes in handy."

"I see; I think I understand a bit better now. Mischief with more of a point than bored jinxing of enemies."

"Exactly!" said Jade "And though I didn't know he was your son, it won't half be useful for you having a marauding son keeping his finger on the pulse. Can I go have a quick bath before supper please? I intercepted someone's slugs that they were vomiting in a carriage and I feel slimy."

"Run along do, dear!" said Agata. Jade bobbed a curtsey out of habit and ran.

Agata reflected that the level of mischief in Durmstrang had gone up seriously since Jade had arrived; but on the other hand the air of oppression had gone down. She wondered briefly who had been vomiting slugs, over what offence, and what, if anything, Jade had done about it.

The vomiter had been Erzebet Czerny for trying to tell her small countryman Sigismund that he was going to be her fag and she would punish him if he would not; and the curse had been cast by Zlatka, since the twins had collected this apparent protégé of their beloved Jade. And Jade had set Zlatka to write an ode to the beauty of slime since she had seen fit to deliver her slimy punishment at a time that landed it in a Professor's lap. She also informed Erzebet that if this was a duel for the services of the verminous first year, Zlatka appeared to have won and any untoward action towards the boy would doubtless incur the just wrath of his fellow and it had better not start interfering with the work of either as both were in exam years. This was a veiled threat; interfering with exam students could be interpreted as interfering with exams and become an expulsion offence.

Jade had no worries for Sigismund if he was in the care of the oldest Marauders in the school.

oOoOo

Another had come to see Madam Bacsó; Erzebet Czerny had come to complain, or rather to whine.

"There's a new boy from our own country, Madam Bacsó and it's only right and proper that he should fag for me; but those wretched Bulgarian twins have taken him and they have heaps of fags though they're only fifth formers because they have taken those who used to fag for er, Frau Von Luytens and it isn't fair!" she said.

Agata regarded her with distaste. The idea of her precious son fagging for this nasty girl who Agata knew was rough towards the little ones was abhorrent.

"The fagging system serves several purposes" said Agata, forcing herself to keep her voice level "One of which is to relieve exam students of minor chores – but only if those exam students can attract followers. It is also part of a training for leadership. I presume that all the first years have already heard of you and that is why you are unable to attract a fag. It is moreover for the advancement and protection of the youngest in the school that they should make advantageous connections. Herr Tóth must feel that the Asimov twins form a more advantageous connection for him than you. And frankly I cannot blame him; they are pure blooded and well born. Also they are known to be pleasant to the little ones; which you are not. I fear you will have to shift for yourself; I am not about to interfere in the fagging system unless there are obvious abuses. Which there are not. And if you feel it is not fair, well, life seldom is; but so far as attracting followers is concerned, generally speaking one makes ones own luck in that respect by one's reputation. Yours is not good, and I do not appreciate a girl who has been disappointing academically and behaviourally trying to use the fact of being a fellow countryman of mine. I wish you were not; one might take you readily for a German. Do not let me hear that you use any childish and underhanded methods to avenge yourself or, as you are probably puerile enough to word it, pay back the Asimovs. I will not hesitate to expel you if you do not grow up and get a life."

Czerny stared open mouthed. She had relied on being Hungarian to get the head to be sympathetic and order the Tóth boy to fag for her; what else was the point of having a Hungarian headmistress?

"But…." She began.

"You are dismissed, Fraulein Czerny" said Agata coldly.

Czerny had no choice but to leave; but she was most dissatisfied. She WANTED the boy to fag for her; and she would see that he did!

oOoOo

Jade meanwhile bumped into Ihor Rebet.

"Ihor! Come and have coffee with Wulf and me after supper!" she said.

"Delighted" said Ihor. He looked a trifle shifty. Jade beamed at him; she supported any decision of his that the rest of the staff might consider a little dodgy and she needed him to know she approved of him. He went on his way warmed by her affectionate smile. Yes, Jade Snape – Luytens, rather – would not condemn him.

oOoOo

Jade sat at supper next to Nannerl Schwefel.

"Nannerl! Glad to be back in Germany?" she asked.

"Yes thank you Jade – Nefrita, rather – I have been to see my parents and reassure them that the so terrible English did no worse to me than to open my eyes to the wrongdoing of the Odessa. They did not believe at first until I pointed out that Herr Professor Snape has no need to waste time with torture as he is a skilled legilimens; and that indeed I have been tenderly cared for, though longing for my own people. I did not enjoy teaching goblins, and so I was able to say; but it is a skill of mine and to pay my way I gritted my teeth. I have become almost used to them" she added.

"The kids of the Umbrous Lane complex are depressed in intellect for their poverty and meagre diet more than their race" said Jade "As well as being a rough bunch. Quite a baptism of fire to be plunged into; I'll be taking on the German equivalent next year and I'm expecting it to be a challenge. Kids that poor kind of feel they have to challenge your authority daily, partly because they can't believe their luck and partly because they grow up thinking that learning is soppy in a sort of 'sour grapes' sort of fashion. My respect to you for sticking it out."

"It was tough" admitted Nannerl "And they were extremely racist about me being German; called me a sausage-eating racist bitch when they thought I wasn't in earshot."

"If you showed any distaste for goblins at all they'd feel you justly deserved the epithet 'racist" said Jade "And as to their perceived ideas of your ethnic background, well the blatant cheating of the German Sports Ministry has NOT endeared them to the English. Nor indeed to such who would try to win fairly like Anett Breuer."

"Yes, she visited; and her boyfriend, who seems to be a hero of those rough brats, floored a couple of them for making disparaging remarks."

"Mortimer Bane went to the free school before transferring to Hogwarts for NEWTs; that's why he's their hero. And if he's ready to marry a German girl it will help them to see being German is not an immediate passport to nastiness. He wants their moral support for the goblins in Germany; and the opportunity for some to visit on subsidised holidays, to get some of the kids to offer to share their small rooms with another kid from Germany. So that German goblins – who are primitive in behaviour compared to English goblins for not having the same advantages – may see to what they may aspire. It's a nice idea and I support Mort in it. He'll be teaching Transfigurations in my school with Anett teaching herbology; and he, a part goblin of respectably married parents a beacon to those German humans and goblins who think that all half breeds come from rape or prostitution. To help to destroy the stigma. Still! You're happy to be in Durmstrang teaching; looking forward to pioneering a new subject for the school?"

"I am indeed; and I've had the opportunity to talk to David Fraser and Sirius Black to raise my standards and enhance my knowledge so I may do well by the pupils here" said Nannerl. "Though I am not entirely happy to find Frida Rundqvist on the staff; such a terribly hearty female."

"Frida's all right so long as you sit on her firmly and regularly" said Jade "I squashed her and good last year by suggesting she listened to the babes on the subject of compulsory voluntary quidditch practice and how they thought she was torturing them. The idea that she was making them hate the beautiful game shocked her into tameness. If she forgets again, suggest to the kids that they play hurley instead; which ought to bring her back in line."

Nannerl laughed.

"Manipulative! Excellently done though; she has a hide like a graphorn and about as much tact."

Jade grinned.

"We should get Orlando to distract her with a veronica of his cape maybe then" she said. "If we can prize him out of Kathleen and Anastasia."

"Where do they come from?"

"I suggested Kath as a helper in filming wild beasts; she's worked in the muggle world doing much the same. Her son's a cousin, because Crassus Prince was a bit of a tart and an accomplished seducer" shrugged Jade "Anastasia's daughter is married to Kath's son and they're best friends. Excellent arrangement."

"The English have strange ideas about excellent arrangements" said Nannerl.

"Well if you're jealous, perhaps they'll let you in on a foursome" said naughty Jade, leaving Nannerl spluttering!

oOoOo

Madam Bacsó rose after the meal to welcome the children back and to wish a productive time at school to the new ones. She decided to mention the threefold purpose of the fagging system – to aid upper forms especially exam students, to allow younger ones to make contacts and to give them protection of an older youth against any vicissitudes that life away from home for the first time might throw at them. She reminded the school that nobody had the right to order their fag to undertake anything that would make them break school rules; nor to enact any punishment on their fag – beyond a prefect impot set on a child without the fact of them being a fag being relevant – save to withdraw protection or friendly overtures.

"The tortures commonplace under the regime that was dictated by Odessa stop forthwith; now we have risen against Odessa I may claim my school back" she said grimly. "If any fag feels they have been used unjustly by their fellow, they should go to see a prefect about it. The prefects stand between staff and school; remember, they are your advocates as well as your first line – for anyone, not just fags – to take a grievance to. They will officiate too over duels; and if a matter is too weighty for them, then they will involve the staff. Those who have been chosen as prefects have been chosen for their leadership abilities and their temperate and genteel behaviour. Those who have not been chosen have not been chosen for a reason; in that they do not have what it takes. This does not necessarily mean they are bad people but that they are not those to whom leadership readily comes. It is to be hoped that with the influence of Odessa out of the school it will become harder to choose prefects, not because there will be fewer but because there will be more who learn the right attitude and have the right qualities. I hope that in the future I will say that those who have been chosen as prefects have been drawn from the best; not that I have had to choose the only ones capable. From this year, my children, you will not be growing up depressed in spirit by a pernicious force of oppression. Alas, some of the oldest in the school have yet to learn that such is unacceptable. Therefore, bullying will be dealt with seriously and may lead to expulsion; you who yearn for the ways of Heinrich Nachtigall, Hedda Schrempf and Odessa have been warned" she said grimly. "There is now some good news. First, let me welcome back Nefrita, now Frau Baronin Von Luytens, and answering to Frau Professor Von Luytens, who will be revealing to you the more subtle mysteries of the Dark Arts and their counters; and Frau Professor Von Luytens will also be running a voluntary chanting class on Saturday mornings from ten. She assures me that those of you who are keen in the fifth have every hope of passing the English equivalent of a ZP in the subject and has written on your behalf to request an examiner and that papers will be sent. I believe she expects you to negotiate with her for extra, more advanced, lessons in your own time. Frau Von Luytens?"

Jade rose.

"Thank you Madam Bacsó; there's really little more for me to add. That's basically the Asimov twins I think; and you two are just going to have to take over the Saturday class for me after your ZP's because I have my own school to go to next year. And if any feel dismayed, you should know that Lydia Snape taught others at Hogwarts school in chanting from her fourth year – she and her friends actually were awarded the OWL a year early because the examiners felt that their efforts saving Viktor Krumm's life by an hour long chant constituted a tougher exam than the actual set exam, and made them answer a viva voce for the theory. Those of you who remember him teaching will doubtless be pleased they managed. Hogwarts now has a chanting professor but it is certain that Lydia Snape got many through an exam they would not otherwise have been able to take."

"We won't let you down, Frau Professor" said Zlatko, rising to bow.

Agata smiled austerely on him.

"You will not let teaching others interfere in your own ZH studies however Herr Asimov; I will keep an eye on you next year" she said. "The other new teacher here is Fraulein Schwefel; who is to teach a subject new to this school. We saw how in the last Triwizard, an acquaintance, even if only in passing, with Geomantic studies meant the difference between doing well or badly on the second task; and that was set as a secondary feat, not to be considered – in Professor Snape's mind – as any challenge next to the tough piece of potioneering. And as he considered it to be something to be fair because his own daughter had not studied it very far and was taken aback at our lack of knowledge in the general population of the school I have decided that it is time to address that deficiency. Fraulein Schwefel has taught herself Geomancy, at first as a hobby; and has spent some years in England perfecting her knowledge under the tutelage of their top professors in the subject. Had she been a few years younger and had been our champion she might have given the English a run for their money on that task as she is also a fine potioneer" she smiled.

Nannerl rose.

"Madam Bacsó is kind to say so; and indeed I never earned any black looks from Professor Rebet so I do not quake in my shoes to return as a colleague" she said, smiling at Professor Rebet. "I have always hoped to teach, but I must say I am very excited at the opportunity to teach an entirely new subject. I fear that there will be no ZP until next year, but I am willing to schedule a timetable to permit those of you now in the fifth to study over two years and take the ZP in your lower sixth year; or indeed those in the lower sixth now to take it alongside their ZHs. The ZH will then be ready, I trust, for the year after; though I think the subject sufficiently complex that any who take the ZP in the lower sixth will be unlikely to manage to take the ZH over a year. Some of you may surprise me. Now as I see some blank faces, let me explain what Geomancy entails. It is the study of magical place; and magical travel. It explores how we may make a place unplottable; how we may use ley lines to travel faster by broom or other conveyance; and at the highest level how we may plot an arithmantic formula to apparate to a place that is unknown to us save by geomantic co-ordinates. This is one of the skills I have learned in England, and it does need some tricky use of Arithmancy. Be warned; Geomancy is not a soft option, and it does require you to bring your brains to class with you. And those of you in the fourth and above who hope to take it to exam will have to put in some extra work on your own time to bring yourself past the kindergarten stage of recognising geomantic symbols such as were used on that map for the Triwizard that shocked everyone so much. Geomancy is key to anyone who wishes to travel; and I would say that anyone who has even studied it, let alone has a ZP can walk straight into a job in the Ministry of Transport."

"And moreover Vehmgerichten use finders who use geomancy" said Jade.

"Do they? Even more reason then to study it – as well as for those of you who hope to be in the Triwizard next time" laughed Nannerl.

"And the powers help the school, that's going to be the Eulenspiegels trying for that!" Jade chuckled "And the creative urges of the likes of Leva Levedeva trying to circumvent the age line!"

Leva and the other junior Durmstrang Marauders grinned.

There was much interest in the school over this new subject; and Jade's chanters were eager to work hard on their skill too.

As well as wondering whether chanting might hold a key to circumventing such things as an age line.

They went off chattering happily and Sofie suggesting that they should open correspondence with Lilith Snape in Hogwarts who probably had some good ideas so they could exchange thoughts.

"And no point asking Nefrita – I mean Professor Von Luytens because she won't tell us" said Elfleda mournfully.

"We have three years to work it out" said Kjell "Really, I don't see why we shouldn't!"

oOoOo

Sigismund, Beremud, Lindhard, Corneliu and Beryx were glad to be able to get a dormitory where they were all together – it was a simple matter of wheedling the elves who took their baggage to be left more or less at random in one of three boys' dormitories – and they shared with three other boys. These were Pyotr Gorshok of Russia, Ernst Reinkessel of Germany and Alois Dunkelschwann of Austria. Alois was the boy who had bemoaned that he was not clever enough for Prince Peak; he was wary of a gang of boys that had already formed but as they did not seem inclined to throw their weight around he smiled tentatively and asked if they had know each other long.

"Ages" said Beremud "Well Lindhard and me anyway; we travelled by train together before we even reached the lodge."

"I too have known Corneliu for several days" said Beryx "Which isn't what you meant."

"No; it is nice to make friends but being Austrian I am one of those who is an odd one out" said Alois.

"I am the only Hungarian; it does not matter" said Sigismund. "If you were thinking we might pick on you we shan't; actually we're hoping to be Marauders so you may come to us with troubles and we will pick on bullies. It's what Marauders are for."

"I am not one who joins gangs; I think they are improper" said Ernst Reinkessel. "I think perhaps I should report this secret society of yours."

"Don't be a prig" said Beremud "It is an institution known of by the head, and marauders train to be the sort of people who end up as prefects. It's not a secret society either because if it was we wouldn't talk about it because the point of a secret society is to be secret. And we hadn't invited you to join anyway. WE were invited to try for acceptance by one of the older groups of Marauders."

"I think we should live and let live" said Pyotr Gorshok "If these so-called marauders bring trouble on our year or our dormitory, then is the time to make trouble back. And as they spoke of it in an offer to help Alois not be bullied, that then is admirable. I do not join things either; we three are neutral, is that not the truth?"

Ernst muttered a bit; but complied, at least for the moment. Perhaps he would drop a hint about this not-secret society.

The would-be Marauders exchanged looks. He was a possible source of trouble; but they would keep an eye on him and be model pupils until such time as they had really good cause to maraud; and keep their searches for secret passages to legal leisure times – for now.

Beremud smiled kindly on Alois.

"Frau Professor Von Luytens went to Prince Peak before she came here to do ZH's" he said "She is most awfully clever; she took seven ZH's you know, the most anyone has ever taken. I am looking forward to her classes very much; are you? She advises that we all work hard at Arithmancy even if we are not so good at it as it is most important."

"Know her well do you?" sneered Ernst "Like you would know a Frau Baronin."

"Actually" said Beremud sweetly "She's my parents' landlady; so actually I do know her. She has been kind enough to tell me a little about the Dark Arts in the holidays; only background but very interesting. And when she was at school she was a Marauder, so stick that up your fat Westphalian rear and sit on it."

The other would-be marauders laughed; and Ernst scowled. He had not come well out of that encounter!

The five had been given firm lectures on how to be Marauders and took it all very seriously; these older ones had been kind to take the time to explain, and to feel that they might have what it took!


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"So tell me about your potioneer, Ihor" said Jade "Love at first stir?"

Ihor flushed.

"You – was my letter so transparent?"

"Moderately" said Jade "You have been so shut in on yourself so long with that awful lung injury; if you have found someone special I am very glad for you."

He flushed again.

"Taryn is special" he said "So too is her daughter; potioneers are born, not made, and both are born potioneers. Taryn's mother was – is still for all I know – a prostitute; Taryn learned to brew cold cures and contraceptives. She ran away to avoid having to be a prostitute but not before she had been forced into sleeping with the goblin who sired Zhenga. Who was my first contact incidentally; this red haired goblin kid with a touch of human about her who took me to the potioneer I was asking for in thought I needed some draught. The loveliness of her mother was…. Well breathtaking. I – well I explained that I believed potioneers should be trained to help make the population healthier; she was suspicious of altruism. I would support a potioneer anyway but I pointed out that helping the poor, human and goblin, gave us support against Odessa. I wanted to offer to pay to send Zhenga to school you see; it would be a crime not to. And actually, no disrespect, Jade, but I should like her to study under your father."

"Makes sense; she couldn't study under you as readily if you are to become her father if you are courting her mother; and you are second only to daddy" said Jade. Jade respected Connie but did not rate her as highly as Durmstrang's potioneer; and she did not rate Horace Slughorn at all. Which may have been unfair, but Jade was not always fair to those she despised.

Ihor Rebet flushed again.

"I – we – I took her to England where the law is less tied up over miscegenation and we got married yesterday" he said in a rush.

"Precipitate? You Ihor? I'm surprised" said Jade.

"Zhenga took me to a bit of waste ground where they gather more herbs and told me firmly that she could see that I fancied her mummy and if I would not feel her an impediment she would like me as a daddy" said Ihor shamefaced "She's a very managing child; reminds me a lot of you."

Jade grinned ruefully.

"And red hair too, you say? Much like my sister Lilith; same age at that" she added.

"She keeps it short; dresses as a boy. She's afraid – at TEN – of being raped or dragged off to a brothel" said Ihor grimly. "I want to protect her. And – well, I went to say goodbye for the term and Zhenga firmly told me that I would be wanting to kiss her mummy and left us to it. And… well…. It went further than a kiss. And I could not leave her unwed if she might have my child, could I?"

Jade gave him a hug.

"Not being the gentleman you are, Ihor. Well, you can't have her here; however, as I'd half expected you to end up with this Taryn anyway I made arrangements with Agata that you will teach in my school next year and Cacilia Von Freyer will come here. Suit you?"

"Eminently" said Ihor. "I'd rather teach those who have talent regardless of race rather than carry on dealing with the sly insults of the high born dunces I have to put up with in this pile."

"And we'll have a couple of years to get up a triwizard champion" grinned Jade "No, I don't suppose we shall manage it" as he looked startled "But we'll let them watch to fire the imagination of the youngest. Write to Taryn, won't you, and tell her to send an urgent owl to Anett and Mort at Schloss Adler – we're changing the name of Schloss Von Strang – and they'll collect her and give her asylum. I presume she won't leave her patients without training up an apprentice?"

"She won't; she's very conscientious. She'll want to visit even after I move to your school I'd think."

"Perfect; she can go on the payroll as a roving healer" said Jade. "I'll stuff her through a basic course so she can hold ZAP and ZPs in Potions and anything else she's good at. Maybe a ZH in potions even?"

"With some theory training she's capable" said Ihor. "She's studying Arithmancy and Herbology; I got her books, and also your father's excellent little book on chanting."

"Better yet" said Jade. "I'll ask Mort and Anett to drop in on her and give her some pointers too. And find tasks to keep this managing daughter of yours well occupied!"

He laughed.

"I thought I hated all children; but I am surprised at my intensity of love for little Zhenga. And how much I look forward to having children of my own too. She wants siblings" he added.

"Well, I wish you all well!" said Jade "Now I have a tricky ward to put up; you want to help? Zhanargul's only gone and got an enemy who can raise great form spirits and is stupid enough to try."

"I know nothing of great form spirits; or even what they are but if they worry you, I'll do all I can to help exclude them. Tell me what to do and I'll do my best" said Ihor.

oOoOo

Zhanargul, Saula, and both sets of twins that comprised the upper marauders met outside. Zhanargul wanted to understand what was being done for her protection. Agallisse Schreiber also came along.

Jade beckoned to a moving shadow and it dissolved into the four figures of the second year marauding group.

"All right you can help" she said "But this WILL be tricky. If you falter in the words I give you, better to stop dead than stumble on them. It's the preceltic language and it has nasty consonant clusters in it like Gaelic."

"Teach us by rote; and give us a gist of the meaning" said Kjell laconically.

"I was planning to" said Jade.

They spread out after she had taught them the simple part of the chant and began, each youngster at a cardinal point, Ihor by the castle door on one side and Agalisse on the other; and Jade weaving a complex pattern in and out of fey space to make that part of the ward. Most wards against the fey penetrated their peculiar other being; but being able to enter it meant that Jade could make the ward stronger. It would inhibit feyspace travel through the barrier; she must let her father and Seagh and Mort Bane know, the only ones who were likely to try, though Elfleda was learning.

Ihor, chanting by the door, was surprised to see the figure of Magdalene Meyer erupting from it crying,

"Caught you, you naughty children! You're all in detention!"

The chanters took no notice of her and Ihor stuck out a foot to trip her.

She scrambled to her feet and rounded on – as she assumed – a contumelious brat, wand at the ready. The shock on her face that she had been tripped by another professor was almost too much for his equanimity; but he put his finger to her lip and continued with the chant.

It took another fifteen minutes, and as Madam Meyer was making a noisy fuss, Jade absently dropped a wordless full body bind and langlock on her as she passed round.

She had circumnavigated the castle twenty three times to bind the protection to the genetics of the inhabitants. Elves and solid fey had twenty three chromosomes like humans and goblins; but whether that was for the fact that they were solid from a comingling of magic to form flesh with the evolved flesh-form magicians could not be determined. Jade suspected that it was. Jade believed that shapeshifters of various kinds, with the possible exception of animagi, had come about from a fey mingling with any flesh form they could get their hands on, choosing for preference those animals with higher thought functions. Which was why there were rakshasa, badger spirits, fox spirits, werewolves and Bearsark as well as leopard spirits in South America and so on, not weredormice. Or even, Jade grinned to herself recalling a jape of the New Marauders, wereknarls.

They finished and Jade rounded them up.

"Thank you for your aid; you are not of course in detention; Madam Meyer was unaware she was contradicting Madam Bacsó's permission for you to aid members of staff in a tricky ritual" she said "Off to your beds now; and no nightmares. You did a good job and there's nothing to fear."

She watched them in then turned to release Magdalene Meyer.

"How DARE you?" spluttered the Arithmancy teacher.

"I might say, how dare YOU interrupt a ritual to the possible risk of the school?" said Jade coldly. "Interrupting a chant can have serious consequences; I saw Ihor motion you to silence and you continued to try to spoil our efforts. So I silenced you and made sure you could not move to disturb the fine and careful arithmantic patterns I wove; because I'm actually a better arithmancer than you. You're not a very good teacher and you're only here to spy for the ministry. And the ministry would NOT like to know that you tried to put the school as a whole at risk by interrupting a ward ritual in response to a risk of which we have heard."

"Madam Bacsó has not told ME about it" said Meyer, sulkily.

"Why should she? It required competent chanters to complete; and those with more than a passing acquaintance with Arithmancy and dark magic" said Jade "You're not good enough. You don't chant. And I think your concept of dark magic is the idea of seeing Professor Carcano in his underwear. Madam Bacsó asked me to deal with the threat; I asked permission to use the best students as well as Ihor and Agalisse. Not that it's any of your business. And you ought, by now, to realise that the likes of Claudette Reynoult and Erzebet Czerny and Calvina Lekkessel whom I suspect were those who pretended concern that younger ones were slipping out of the castle, are the sort of girls who do not feel concern but who are motivated purely by spite. And Czerny is sore at the Asimov twins because the kid she escorted was ready to leap to fag for almost anyone except her. WHY must you ministry spies always be such inadequates? It was the same when the ministry was trying to keep tabs on Dumbledore; they actually appointed a deatheater as a spy. Is it perhaps because you can't do a real job in the ministry and can only get a job teaching because strings are pulled because you cannot manage to teach either?"

"You are insolent!"

"No, YOU are insolent to assume and to make a nuisance of yourself even when it was obvious that at least one Professor – Ihor – was involved. Do you really think he would lend himself to a childish prank?"

"I don't know what to think; he's been seen poking around in the goblin quarter in Kiev. As well as having gone with you to that disease ridden goblin street last year. Ugh!"

"Well so what? I've been poking around in the goblin quarters of a number of cities; where I own property. And Madam Bacsó also went to help the poor – goblin and human alike – in Munich. Durmstrang defends. I am going to report this incident to Madam Bacsó; I can find her another Arithmancy teacher for this year, fortunately so she can dispense readily with your services."

"So! You think you can order Agata around, who stays who goes?"

"Actually you poor fool, I advised her last year to keep you; but if you behave like this – and several windows are open with a number of interested and juvenile ears listening to you make a worse fool of yourself then usual – she will have no choice but to get rid of you since you have just managed to lose all the respect of all of the school."

There was a muffled 'hear hear' from above.

"You egregious brats!" said Jade loudly "I place you on your honour, all who are there, to present me by teatime tomorrow twenty reps of ' an eavesdropper never hears good of himself' which I proceed to make true by telling you that you are mannerless swine to eavesdrop on a perfectly private quarrel – however loud one of the quarrellers may have been with no thought to being overheard – and disrespectful to be thinking the thoughts you are now thinking with gleeful abandon and that you are all verminous and horrible. Shut the windows."

There was a subdued giggle or two as the windows closed obediently.

"And I shouldn't mind so much if I didn't think that the head boy and deputy head girl might be among those scrupulously handing in their impots" said Jade gloomily "And knowing that although I heard Czerny's voice clearly whispering to Reynoult to come and listen those two will NOT have the honour to do the impot. And in such you place your trust, Magdalene; because you are, as I have said several times, a fool."

"You seek to discredit me!"

Jade could not resist the quote.

"If there is any discredit, you bring it upon yourself. Good night!" she said.

oOoOo

Jade went to see Agata straight away and told her what had occurred.

"Who will I have to replace her?" asked Agata.

"Katarina Nachtigall" said Jade calmly "She took an 'O' in Arithmancy NEWT;she's very good. She'd also, I think, jump at the chance to influence the youth of the future. And she is hochgeborn even though her father holds no title. It will please the parents. I can get her here by tomorrow I think if you wish?"

"Ready for lessons? But she will have no time to plan…."

"She can borrow Hermione Granger's excellent and carefully drawn up lesson plans. Hermione don't need them now teaching is second nature; but being Hermione she wrote everything down in detail before she started teaching. She's like that; but I love her anyway" said Jade cheerfully.

"If you will see to that I will see to asking Magdalene to go before the morning" said Agata. "I shan't say I'm that dismayed; I don't like her."

"I don't like her either; we have the death sentence in twelve systems" said Jade.

"I BEG your pardon?"

"Quote –or rather misquote – from a piece of muggle literature…. Draco started the habit of quoting from it in and out of context and I kind of feel it's proper to keep up the tradition" said Jade. "Don't worry."

"The only thing I worry about is your sanity" sighed Agata "Not that you're losing it; but that you're the only sane one left and that's scary given your whimsies."

Jade laughed and gave her an affectionate kiss on the cheek as she went to raise a communication with Katarina.

oOoOo

At breakfast – or more properly frühstück – Katarina Nachtigall was sitting at the staff table after some impassioned pleading on Jade's part until she had persuaded her friend that her duty lay in teaching now her father had his lawsuit sorted out.

Agata rose.

"You may have noticed a change to the staff table" she said "Professor Meyer has left us suddenly; a nervous breakdown. You should give her every sympathy. Professor Nachtigall has agreed to take her place at short notice; and is working on borrowed lesson plans because of that short notice, so please extend her even more courtesy than you would for any other professor while she adapts herself to teaching. Those of you who are concerned about her name should be aware that her family have not been on friendly terms with that branch of the family whose scion left us in a hurry last year. PLEASE refrain from giggling at the memory" she added waspishly as some of the middle school broke into helpless laughter over the shunting, whistling, and letting off steam of Heinrich Nachtigall. "Madam Nachtigall took five NEWTs at Prince Peak and took 'O' grade in all but one of them; she is a very clever young woman and I hope your Arithmancy will progress well under her tender and scrupulous care."

She ignored Sofie's whisper of

"It can't hardly go worse than under she-who-cannot-explain"

There had been much talk about the rather public quarrel of the previous night; and the general consensus was that Madam Meyer deserved to be sacked because Madam Von Luytens had worked jolly hard to keep the quarrel as inaudible as possible and that Madam Meyer really had gone to town on making herself look an idiot. And whatever ritual the Head had asked Professor Von Luytens to do, that required two other professors AND some of the best chanters had to be pretty heavy; and there was resentment that Professor Meyer had almost wrecked it. Indeed, Serafina waylaid Jade and asked her if she could reassure frightened little ones that the ritual had not been broken.

Jade had laughed and said that if it had, she would have re-laid the enchantments and that she was far too good a ritual magician to be disturbed by a, er, misguided amateur. Which was uncomplimentary enough but better at least than what Jade almost said, and thought; which was 'silly old moo'. Serafina was reassured; Nefrita Von Strang was thorough and being married would not have changed THAT.

Consequently, Jade rose after Katarina had been introduced.

"Some of you outside my top chanters are aware – through eavesdropping egregiously that you are writing me impots over and by the way, I DID hear a voice calling her friend to listen so that person better make sure she and her friend do NOT decide to be dishonourable - that a ritual of protection was performed last night. It was going to be kept secret so as not to worry anyone; but it has come to my notice that outrageous rumours are spreading, so with Madam Bacsó's indulgence I will tell you in broad what it was about so that any rumours of hoards of crazed half-cured werewolves in semi human form can be put to rest and I never heard anything so silly in my life since there was a fictional wereknarl at Hogwarts you poor prunes in the fourth. Which as you have two of my chanters who could assure you it was no such thing proves your poor prunery all the more. Where was I?"

"Seeking my permission to tell them something about it; which with reservations I give" said Agata.

"Thank you" said Jade. "The Head received word that certain powerful fey might be taking an unwholesome interest in the school. The fey are murky creatures; whimsical and capricious at best and out-and out dark creatures at worst. They have trouble maintaining physical form; for that reason they try to steal children for either some of the muckier kinds of blood magic or as breeding stock. All very small children and any who have traces of such fey blood as dryad or highfey or veela blood are what they consider their rightful prey. This does include some pupils we have at moment. Madam Bacsó knows I have made a study of the fey in the context of dark creatures so she asked me to see to setting up wards to keep them out. It was not a particularly difficult chant, though the words I asked the chanters to get their tongues around might lead them to disagreeing. It took about an hour; not the most complex chant I've ever been involved in. You should not fear that the ritual has been in any way damaged; there was no serious interruption by any incident. If the fey come there are plenty of us here who are more than competent to deal with them; and Professor Nachtigall is one of those. She has faced Dementors en masse; and dementors are some of the less pleasant of the fey. I employ English style understatement" she added and there were a few chuckles.

"Thank you for clarifying the situation" said Agata. "I hope you are all reassured that the school has taken every effort to ensure your safety on the offchance – and it is by no means certain that there will be any risk – that there might be any kind of fey attack. I do NOT want to hear any of you hoping that you get the opportunity to fight off attacks in the way the English schools have had to do under the wrongdoing of Odessa. Now you may be about your lessons; which will start five minutes later than usual today because of this issue."

The children filed off, discussing the concept of the fey coming; which as few enough of them had more than the most hazy idea of what the fey were was not a very edifying discussion on the whole.

The first year would-be marauders discussed quietly amongst themselves that they knew more than the rest; because Beremud and Lindhard thought their friends had a need to know about Zhanargul being at risk and what they had learned – and guessed – by discussion with the three second year girls. They were planning on taking chanting on Saturdays.

oOoOo

Jade's first Dark Arts class was with the lower sixth; those who elected to take it to ZH. This included the four prefects who were by way of being Nefrita Von Strang disciples; and among the others, Takeo Namadzu, whose violent and hard nature had worried Jade when she was seeing the class through their ZPs the previous year.

"Can you tell us something about the fey please, Professor?" asked Zhanargul "When I mentioned that my uncle raises Genii and demons the word came up and you cursed a lot in dead languages."

"Sorry" said Jade. "Yes; if it is possible that great form spirit fey arrive here, you who are among the most senior will have a need to know how best to deal with them. One of the things we shall be concentrating on is how to produce a patronus or protective spirit. Patronses have many uses, and driving off dementors is one of them, yes Fraulein Nurtazin I shall not neglect the offensive spells to use against dementors as they are too of use against the high fey; you are a little more advanced for your extra efforts" as Zhanargul stirred and looked ready to protest. "The fey. The fey are almost as many and varied, mutable and everlasting as the dark arts themselves; and I strongly suspect that much of the more subtle dark arts may be laid at their door. They are in their original form made of pure magic; able if strong to form a body that is able to touch and interact with our world – for a short time. They have generally an insubstantiality akin to that of ghosts, that they are aware of their own quasi physical limits and edges but unable, without using magic, to interact with solid objects directly. That they can take physical form – or possess the body of another – led to, over millennia, their ability to form a society based on those of more or less solidity. Some have a solidity so tenuous that they cannot procreate without blood magic; they rarely if ever use willing blood magic. I believe that this is because the closer they are to spirit form the less they understand such humanitarian concepts as love. And love is required for the strongest blood magic – love of an ideal, love of an individual, love of one's family – to give blood willingly, Herr Namadzu?"

"When you say love, do you mean loyalty, Frau Professor? Love is such a – a weak word."

"Loyalty is a form of love, Herr Namadzu; I beg to differ about love being a weak word; such it is seen as such only by small boys who snigger and think it only to do with sex and girls or by the truly weak who isolate themselves and call weak that which they do not and cannot understand; those who, like Voldemort, think that forcing their will on others is strong, rather than showing them up as intensely sad little gits. Consider if you will a mother, whose love for her child gives her the hysterical strength to lift a carriage off her child; it has happened. Consider the samurai of your own country's love for truth and honour that he will commit a painful death in three cuts to reprove the lord he also loves and is loyal to, because he cannot in honour live with the shame of obeying, but nor can he live with the shame of disobeying."

"You understand that?"

"I understand it; it is not the English way that I am reared to, that sees it as honourable to risk being thrown from one's lord's service by reproving him verbally. The two have the same root however. It differs from the German way, that one does not disobey regardless of one's feelings. Those of us from island nations have much in common."

He nodded.

"I retract my statement; one might love without weakness in the way you have described" he said.

Well it might be a start. If he would respect her for understanding his country's customs that could help. And Jade had read all she could on the subject specifically to help the boy.

"And in the Gempei wars families were often on both sides because there were those who for love of family would choose to follow other masters to hold the family together" she added. "That is a little off the track; but we need to consider that, at an advanced level, the exponents of the dark arts are, generally speaking, incapable of love; and that is their weakness and yet what they believe in their self destructive folly to be their strength. But no one person is an island. When blood magic is entered into in a spirit of love – of loyalty – it is the strongest magic bar pure love itself, even as Harry Potter's mother sacrificed herself and so, in an unknowing blood pact, caused her infant son to bounce the killing curse and in doing so damaging the original body of Tom Riddle – Voldemort – irrevocably, killing that form. How he survived in spirit is a long story that we shall study later. So, we have those who have little or no substance who also have little or no positive emotion; unlike ghosts who have similar emotions to when they were alive. There are schools of thought that the fey, as well as travelling through an interactive elsewhere, came from an entirely different place. That the means they used to come here is echoed faintly in the feyspace that they use to travel. It would not surprise me; but when they came is so long ago that it is futile to speculate for more than hobby and philosophical purposes. They came; they stayed. We do not know, even if they did come from some other reality, whether they fled a world they had destroyed, or were trapped here; or even how substantial they were elsewhere. They are here and they took form, some of them, by possession and by temporary magic; and thus they bred. Down the generations they have achieved a permanent form; some more rigid than others. Their breeding experiments threw up two solid and permanent forms that are now as much of our world as we are ourselves; because our ancestors were used to make them. Goblins; and elves. Elves were deliberately forced into the tiny form they now occupy because it made them easier to – yes, to bully. Goblins managed to escape the fey. That was when they came up with the idea of placing a twisted form of the imperious curse in the very heritance of elves to make them self punish even for disloyal ideas; and I do wish you will take a moment to consider how many times you have resented a command of a teacher or a parent and think about burning yourself or banging your head on the floor until you are unconscious for every such thought. It is a dishonour on the human race that we were a party to that curse in exchange for having elves as our slaves."

"Please Madam Von Luytens how do you know we are a party to the curse?" asked Hilde Mundnimbus.

"Because the counter curse required a human to give twelve drops of his heart's blood taken by an elf he had freed" said Jade "Because there are places where that ritual has been performed. If a human or humans had not been involved in placing the curse, human blood would not be required for its undoing. It is a matter of assimilative correlation by component and that's rather post ZH" she added ignoring the fact that she had understood the concept from around about her twelfth year. "Other fey forms are the collectively named high fey; who include Veeli in their number. They are tall and fair, and many wizarding families have mingled blood with them. Fairies are diminished and non sentient forms; perhaps degenerate, perhaps from lesser spirits in the first place. Returning to the East, favoured forms are foxes and badgers and I am writing a paper on the relationship between the fey and shapeshifters as an expression of their desire to have solid bodies and picking those animals of such types that are cleverer so they had less manipulation. Note, most shapeshifters are of the genus Canis, Ursus or Felis; dogs, bears and cats. Wolves and foxes; badgers and bears; leopards and tigers and not one of you has a clue outside of werewolves – save Herr Namadzu – what I'm talking about because you don't have a background in comparative magic. Maybe I'll find time to give you a lesson on some of them at some point. But the point is they SHIFT shape; there is that mutability. In other less fey forms they are mutable in terms that all are slightly different. This one has blue legs; that one has a cow's tail, another is unbelievably ugly on the left and outstandingly beautiful on the right. Some forms have become more set; Hags for example, who require still blood to procreate. Veeli, Lorelei and dryads; there are others. Such have become of this world. But we are not dealing with them. We are dealing with great form spirits who are so much pure energy that forming a body is so difficult because they are so much pure magic that it might cause a summoned – a created, effectively – body to fly apart under the pressure. Such bodies are made in the same way as we summon solid objects in transfiguration; that is harder than summoning energy because more energy must be used to solidify pure energy into things. And even as summoned objects will vanish back into the energy from which they came in time – without a clever piece of permanencing magic requiring even more energy that can noticeably drop the temperature in a room if you're dealing with anything much bigger than a rabbit – so in time such summoned bodies dissipate even if not, as it were, melted by the sheer spiritual volume of magical being trying to inhabit it. We do not have words to describe it; I have to do the best with a language based on our complacent acceptance of the flesh we inhabit. Possession is then an option; to knock a spirit aside, cast it out; to overwhelm it; or to take a body at the point of death. Herein we get certain blood magic rituals again, where the death energy of a being is used to fuel the difficult possession of the body and the settling of the spirit into it. Fortunately the ritual is both difficult and so little used with the controls the various ministries have that it is almost lost."

"Do you know it ma'am?" asked Namadzu.

"No; or rather, I have not read it. My rather eclectic knowledge tells me that it's really quite obvious if you have a wide selection of facts at your disposal. You're not a good enough arithmancer to even think of it" she added "It is NOT an 'E' grade piece of Arithmancy; nor even a scrape at 'O'."

"I wasn't planning to, Frau Von Luytens; I just wondered if you knew" said Namadzu. "How many others could piece it together?"

"Anyone who has studied high levels of comparative magic, post ZH Arithmancy, post ZH chanting, post ZH transfiguration and who has enough fey blood to manipulate their other space or knows enough about the ancient Egyptians to play pat-a-cake with separating body and soul" said Jade "I think we're on rather a short list."

"Which is to be relieved about" said Zhanargul. "Tell us more about the great form spirits and why they are called demons or genii."

"They are called many things according to the culture which utilises their powers" said Jade "In the middle east they are genii and efreeti; in Africa and the Caribbean they are loa and are a part of everyday magic; in the western world that are called demons – occasionally angels – and the word translates more or less directly into the languages of eastern philosophy too. Some cultures have traditional pseudo or summoned bodies that the summoner forces them into; which can make them more tractable because the summoner is the one who has control of the body and the interaction with this world is made – by a wise summoner – conditional on the inhabiting of the body. Knowing a true name can mean you control a great form spirit; as with Finnish naming magic that you also know nothing about I suppose. Some of the Kami of Japan are great form spirits; they tend to be attached to places or families. Perhaps families they have interbred with; perhaps like the leshy of Wales merely attached to a place where they may feed on beauty rather than on destructive forces. But most great form spirits hunger and hate. They hope, if summoned, that the summoner may make a mistake; because then, because he must open himself up rather to summon them, he is vulnerable to easy possession. There are protective runes and patterns; different from one culture to another but all with arithmantic similarities. Most familiar to most of you will be the pentacle. Herr Namadzu will have seen muggles carrying a memory of demon control in the rope circle scattered with salt and chanted over by a Shinto priest with garbled versions of arithmantic formulae for the Sumo wrestling. And incidentally, one reason, Herr Namadzu, that you struggle sometimes with Arithmancy is because the numerology you learned at your mother's knee as it were is subtly different to western numerology. And worth, incidentally, studying both. And if you're a masochist, try Jewish numerology; they have more versions than the French have sauces each one more tortuous than the last. It IS relevant and I'm not rambling from the point; if you are dealing with the Shideem and Mazikeem of the Jewish culture, using Jewish numerology might be relevant. If you're trying to raise a traditional demon of the western world, stick to the familiar Pythagorean numerology. I'm talking here about designing perfect protective chants. Frankly, in my opinion, anyone who wants to raise a great form spirit has several erumpants loos in the top paddock; they are NOT house elves and however well you wrap up the formula to make them obey you, like all the stories of Genii you might have read they really are looking for a get out free clause and a way to eat you for breakfast. The thing is, if it's worded right they DO have to obey; and that I think is due to a mistake made in the house elf enslaving ritual that gave a means to force ANY fey into total obedience – for a while, on a good day, with the wind behind you and don't make any grammatical errors they can wriggle through nor pause to say 'er' at all. The slightest error and you are toast. The good news is" she grinned at Zhanargul "Getting rid of those someone else has summoned is sort of easier. Providing you are hard enough. You don't have to impress the spirits like the summoner does – did I mention there's a battle of will and charisma? – so all you need to do is to chant a kind of engulfing spell to banish them. It's somewhere between the Arithmancy for an _evanesco_ spell, elf apparating and an engulfing charm and as you're all looking at me fairly blankly it's a good job you have me to write the chants for you. Cheer up! There is also a spell that disrupts their form so totally I doubt even the most powerful could re-form for several hundred years by which time you won't be worrying; it is the spell that calls lightning from your wand, real honest electrical lightning. And for use on beings I'm petitioning to have it made unforgivable. I don't count dementors and great form fey. The more magical something is, the more it is disrupted by electricity. They are pure magic. It's a spell I shall be teaching you. The bell's about to go so read the chapter on dementors and write me six to nine inches on how to set up safeguards when summoning; I shall credit extra arithmantic notes from those of you who are capable; which, Herr Namadzu, should be well within your capabilities. Dismissed!"


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Sigismund did not have a guilty conscience yet – well not much of one – so he felt no qualms about being summoned to the head's office by a house elf. He thanked the elf gravely because his mother was very keen on nice manners and Sigismund did not even think about not thanking the elf.

The head was smiling and ushered him into her private sitting room where milk and sticky German biscuits waited.

"You can say a lot about the Germans but they do know their baking" murmured Agata.

"Are you being Aunt Agata not Madam Bacsó?" asked Sigismund.

"I am. And…. Well, this is difficult" she said "No, nothing to worry about" as alarm sprang into his face "No bad news; just something I want to talk to you about and tell you. Because I think it's time for you to know some things. You – your parents have told you that you are adopted, haven't they?"

"Yes Aunt Agata they have; they said the time would come when I was old enough to understand why my real mother could both love me and give me up. I say, Aunt Agata, are you my MOTHER?"

Agata almost flinched; he was so clever!

"I am. I had hoped to break it a little more gently."

"Oh, but Aunt Agata, I'm so glad! Because you're so beautiful and clever and brave, and you've always been in my life; and I was so afraid I'd not have a mother I could be proud of!"

Agata was weeping as she embraced him; and Sigismund felt rather choked too.

"It was so hard" she said softly "But you see, you'd have had a rotten life as the child of an essentially unemployable teacher; I'd have been sacked if anyone had known and there would have been only one choice of profession for me. I had just been given the headship of Durmstrang when I discovered I was pregnant; an example would be made. And too I believed I had a chance of making a difference for non German children…. Complex motives but I never once stopped considering your needs."

"You're awfully brave; I guess it must have been hard. My – my father would not marry you?"

"Your father had been forced into an arranged marriage; his wife liked the situation no more than he but she – she would not divorce him. I am not sure we would be good marriage partners anyway; we would have made shift for your sake but we are not in love. Just good friends."

"I'm glad you're friends. Is it Uncle Attila?"

"It is; and he's waiting in the other room to talk to you. We shall both have to be tough on you in class and if we catch you out Marauding."

Sigismund grinned.

"You don't mind me Marauding?"

"Marauders mean the good of the school; it took me a little while to get my head around it but I do understand now. And the Marauders are drawn from the leaders; I'm proud my son – or rather, officially my cousin, who calls me aunt, – is one of those. You are getting on well with your friends?"

"Oh yes, we're getting on like a cauldron on fire!" said Sigismund "We're searching for secret passages in legal leisure time at the moment because one of the fellows in our dorm is the most frightful prig and we don't trust him not to sneak us up if we go off after lights out; the other two are mostly harmless."

"I should not offer the advice, but if a sneak goes off sneaking and those he's ratting up sneak back into bed and seem quietly asleep when a professor arrives, he is going to be embarrassed" said Agata "Dear me, it IS a long time since I participated in illicit night-time excursions; though ours were, I'm afraid, were either for midnight feasts or improper use of the potions dungeon to aid some ally with a love potion – foolishness that we did not realise the danger of. And I must say when Professor Rebet was so badly injured by a similar prank I was heartily ashamed of taking part in such. We had not got Marauders then to show us the way to proper mischief. Or to separate mischief from nastiness. It took Professor Von Luytens explaining it; and explaining how one should be harder on one's own relatives that really helped me try to make a difference in the school."

"I bet you'd have made a smashing Marauder if there had been them" said Sigismund loyally if ungrammatically. "Please may I tell my friends? Marauders didn't ought to have secrets from each other."

"Certainly you may – if you think they will take it well" said Agata.

"Oh they will; they're Marauders" said Sigismund, as if this explained all. Which to him it did. "And I say, thank you for the advice; I bet we can refine on that even further too to make sure we settle Ernst's hash so he doesn't do it again. Pyotr's a cold fish but he doesn't interfere and Alois is dim but worthy."

Agata hid a smile at the devastatingly honest summation of a small boy.

"Just think about any mischief you do; and if it truly harms anyone it's wrong headed mischief" she said "Stay out of the potions dungeon – it's out of bounds for YOUR protection – and try not to get into any real danger. Note I don't forbid you outright; I might as well forbid the wind to blow. Just try."

"Oh I will – I say, should I carry on calling you Aunt Agata?"

"Yes; it's easier on you. Because that is all I've ever been; and please do NOT start feeling any guilt that you love your parents most. That is only natural. They've had the rearing of you; and any wistfulness I feel that I have missed such things as your first steps is my problem to deal with; not yours."

Sigismund hugged her.

"But now you get a part of my life that mum and dad do not" he said "You and Uncle Atilla."

"You're a generous natured and mature little boy" said Agata. "Ah, here is Attila."

Attila Nagy came forward and laid a hand on Sigismund's shoulder.

"I've been no sort of father to you" he said "Indeed I'm a pretty poor father to my legitimate son. You have a half brother."

"Will – will you tell me about him?" asked Sigismund.

"He's a year younger than you" said Attila "I don't suppose you will understand but I went to my wife and he was conceived in a spirit of anger and frustration that I could not have the raising of you. I could not even tell her; she would have used it as a weapon against me. She already tries to control how much I see Zoltan. And he….. he is afraid of me."

"She sets him against you? That's awful!" gasped Sigismund.

"It's not all her fault; though she does tell him I am violent" said Attila "It is partly that I am an argumentative man; loud and forthright. You argue back, stand up for your point of view. Zoltan….. Zoltan cannot. He cowers from me" he said, making a gesture of frustration "He is musical and sensitive; and he fears me. He ought really to go to Prince Peak, that has a specialist music teacher; and is a smaller, less scary school. But SHE will not hear of it; because it is what I suggested. So I beg you to look out for him here when he comes."

"Of COURSE I will sir!" said Sigismund.

"Which leads to another point" said Agata. "At the end of this academic year, Sigismund, I shall want you to think very long and hard; because if it seems too hard that you are taught by close relatives you may yourself wish to transfer to Prince Peak. Your education would not suffer; indeed I – I have to admit that the academic level is higher than here. If you feel that your friendships are enough to sustain you being treated relatively harshly, make staying worthwhile, that will be your decision. There are, however, Marauders too at Prince Peak; Frau Von Luytens went there before coming to Durmstrang and she too will answer any questions you have."

"I – I don't have to choose in a hurry do I?" asked Sigismund.

"No; I give you plenty of warning to consider it" said Agata.

"I think if my brother is to come here it would be shirking my duty to him not to stay even if it is tough" said Sigismund. "Does he know about me?"

"No son; and whether you tell him or not I shall leave to you" said Attila.

"Can you have him a music teacher?" asked Sigismund.

Attila Nagy gave a mirthless laugh.

"The only ones who understand truly music in magic come out of Prince Peak" he said "I can only hope to hire one of them; but the lessons for one boy will not pay much. Will any bother?"

"I will arrange the keep of such, Attila, at the school; you must hope for someone who wants to delve into our library as Frau Von Luytens has delighted in doing" said Agata.

"If your wife thinks you are all that is bad and believes anything she says to Zoltan about you being violent she is wicked to send him to school where you teach and can't escape you" said Sigismund "Even if she is wrong; because she's deliberately sending him somewhere where he'll be miserable."

"And punishing me by seeing him be miserable; and expecting him to be bullied for being a teacher's son and so making me more miserable" said Attila clenching his fists "Yes it is wicked; but she hates me enough that she has not stopped to consider HIS feelings at all."

"Well I shall look after him and so will the other Marauders; and it's not like Nagy is an uncommon name. There's a Romanian boy who has the surname and he's no relation to you at all, is he?" said Sigismund "As Zoltan's from Hungary I shall be the senior Hungarian oik next year so I can get to him first and tell him to keep pretty damn quiet about being a teacher's son and tell him how to go on and fix him up to fag for someone decent."

"You are a good boy; and I should not fix my troubles on you" said Attila. "But how PROUD I am of you that you just take it in your stride!"

"Well it's not like I didn't already know and love you both is it?" said Sigismund cheefully. "Are there any more biscuits? Only I'm famished because we've been out in the forest with Professor Carcano."

"Horrid child, it's supper in less than an hour!" said Agata "All right, just a couple more."

oOoOo

Sigismund discussed the situation with his own group; who were duly impressed by the Head's having to give up her own son.

"And of course we'll look out for your brother" said Beremud "I always thought that people who didn't stick inside marriage were next to being dark wizards but I guess it's a lot more complex than one thinks; I'm glad I come from a poor neighbourhood where people don't do arranged marriages!"

"At least I'm not likely to get an arranged marriage; my adoptive parents are poor relations and didn't even go to Durmstrang" said Sigismund "And I say, I guess it's Aunt Agata who's paying for my sister and brother because they are going to be coming too."

"I did not realise Prince Peak specialised in music or I would have asked my father to send me there" said Corneliu "Though now I have friends here I am glad he did not; but I say, if he sends me a music teacher, do you think that Professor Nagy could hire the same teacher? My father has spoken of it."

"That's a wizard idea!" said Sigismund "And I say, you can teach all of us music to help with chanting and we can maybe figure out for ourselves how to use it in magic."

"And we should all also learn Parseltongue from Lindhard" said Beremud "Professor Von Luytens said something about slitting thumbs for a limited blood sharing to be able to feel it; do you think it would also make us more musical?"

"Well it can't HURT" said Sigismund. "I say, you say she said limited? Is there a way to share more fully?"

"Dunno" said Beremud.

"So we need to find out before we do a halfway house thing" said Beryx "Library!"

"We must make careful notes" said Lindhard "And not rush into anything improperly."

Five little boys headed for the library with an enthusiasm rarely to be seen in first years; at least not over legitimate assignments!

oOoOo

What five little boys found in the library was Takeo Namadzu reading a book called 'Blood Magic – Love Magic'.

"Gosh, that looks an interesting book" said Beryx

Namadzu looked up ready to snap.

"It is" he said shortly "And you need not snigger about the word 'love' since it encompasses more than your smutty juvenile minds understand."

"Love is about people making sacrifices just because" said Sigismund "We weren't actually thinking about looove and smooching; we leave that for the terminally hopeless bigger people."

"You're a cheeky brat" said Namadzu.

"I have my bad points too though" said Sigismund. "We're interested in blood magic; can we bags the book when you've done with it please? I guess the title means that if you don't go into it in a spirit of sharing and mutual loyalty you're daft and it isn't going to work."

Takeo Namadzu looked at him anew.

"You understand that? Then maybe I shall pass the book on; I need to ask permission. I borrowed it from a class mate. If she will not let me, you'll have to ask her; it belongs to Zhanargul Nurtazin."

"Oh, two of us fag for her; that should be all right" said Beremud "Shall we go ask her?"

"Why not? It saves me troubling on behalf of brats like you" said Namadzu. "There's more to blood magic than you'd think; it is fascinating."

They ran off to find Zhanargul.

"And why would you be wanting to read what is essentially a very advanced book?" demanded Zhanargul.

They exchanged glances.

"Well, we wanted to see if we could more easily learn Parseltongue and music; and Frau Von Luytens hinted that a bit of blood sharing might so we wondered if a bit more blood sharing might do better or if it was like taking double doses of pepperup potion that does no extra good at all and gives you the runs" said Beremud.

"Well you are sensible about it. Dear me, Marauders are not generally supposed to involve their youthful members in blood magic until they are over thirteen; I am not quite sure what to do" said Zhanargul.

"It's a Marauder thing?" said Beryx.

Zhanargul threw up her hands.

"Go and talk to Frau Von Luytens; I wash my hands of you" she said "Though if you can understand it you are welcome to read the book when Takeo has finished with it. He has an uncertain temper; be careful."

"He was civil enough to us when he saw our interest was genuine" said Corneliu mildly. "If a little defensive."

"He's a prickly bastard with a violent temper and sometimes he likes to hurt the nearest person to him" said Zhanargul "Frau Von Luytens thinks he is hurting over something pretty bad."

"A job for Marauders!" said Sigismund, his face lighting up. Zhanargul laughed.

"Well don't blame me if he loses his temper and tosses the cruciatus curse at you" she said.

"We shan't" said Lindhard taking her literally.

oOoOo

Takeo Namadzu appeared in the junior dormitory after lights out.

"You sh-shouldn't be in here a big boy like you" said Ernst.

"I didn't come to see you" said Namadzu "Here you brats; I finished the book. I don't suppose you'll understand more than half of it" and he dropped it on Sigismund's bed.

"I say, thanks, Namadzu!" said Sigismund "It was decent of you to bring it to us straight away. I hope you found it useful?"

"It was most edifying" said Namadzu "Now shut up and go to sleep."

He left.

"You didn't ought to be getting books that are the sort you won't understand; I'm going to report him for giving smutty books to you" said Ernst.

"Crumbs, Ernst, can't you think of 'difficult to understand' as anything but smutty?" said Lindhard "You're a total idiot; it's a ZH level book we wanted to look something up in is all. You've got a really dirty mind you have; and if we felt any sort of respect for you for having the courage to stand up to a bad tempered sixth former it's kind of been eaten by your ineffable silliness."

"Yes; he might not have been proper to come in here, but if we'd missed him at Frühstück we might not have got to look at it until tomorrow evening" said Sigismund "And it's the personal property of another of the sixth so he had to have permission to lend it on; and if you do anything to deface or damage it, we'll tell on YOU. It's a bit much to threaten to sneak a man up for doing a favour even if he was technically breaking the rules; and actually you know I wish Lindhard hadn't explained it was just a difficult text 'cos then you'd have sneaked him up for passing out smutty books and looked stupid when the truth came out" he added. "You ARE a twerp you know!"

"Can you all just shut up so I can go to sleep?" asked Alois.

"Sorry!" chorused the Marauders and rolled over to settle down.

"Yes, but I say, I still think there's something awful questionable…" began Ernst.

"WHO is talking in here?"

The lumos charm on the room brightened to nightlight level at the command of Baard Trollkettil, patrolling as a prefect.

"They were discussing a book that I'm sure is improper!" said Ernst.

"Funny; all the other 'they' seem to be tucked down while you are sitting up" said Baard.

"We had been talking after lights out" said Sigismund "All except Pyotr and Alois – except to tell us to shut up – because we were protesting Ernst's officiousness."

"What is this book?" asked Baard.

Sigismund passed it to him.

"It belongs to a prefect in the lower sixth sir; we asked to have a look at it" he said.

"Why this is on the additional reading list for ZH level Dark Arts; you haven't a chance of understanding it" said Baard loftily. "Zhanargul Nurtazin it says on the flyleaf; well she is not one who would lay traps for babes by writing spells of entrapment in the margins. And to my mind any that would wish to are not capable. I wish you joy of it; I haven't understood a word of it so far" he turned to Ernst "You are perhaps correct to be concerned that there was dark magic embedded in it" he said.

"He thought it was a dirty book about sex because that's all his mind is capable of" said Beryx scornfully "He wasn't trying to protect us Herr Trollkettil."

"Well!" said Baard "The lot of you are improperly awake when you should not be; you can write me er, ten repetitions of the speech that begins 'sleep no more, Macbeth hath murdered sleep' up to the end of the bit about sleeping. The two who were not participating are excused the imposition. Now for pity's sake let us hear no more from you!"

"I bet they're out to use it to do illicit dark magic" said Ernst.

"And you will write me a further ten repetitions of 'obedience is a virtue'!" snapped Baard. "I don't want to hear another word; and I AM going to wait outside your room until you are all snoring naturally!"

Even Ernst shut up at that; brooding on his wrongs over receiving impots for being, as he saw it, virtuous.

oOoOo

The young would-be marauders slept the sleep of the just until collected by Zlatko for the morning run; in which Alois also participated.

They approached Frau Von Luytens.

"Please Professor we just want to check with you that there is no harm in reading a book called 'Blood Magic, Love Magic'" said Beremud.

"None at all; if you understand it well enough" said Jade "I take it that you are considering my off the cuff remark about slitting thumbs?"

"Yes Ma'am; and we wanted to know if there was more that could be done" said Sigismund.

Jade sighed.

"We do NOT generally recommend it for under thirteens" she said "Are you so impatient?"

"It's because of my half brother as well as anything else" said Sigismund "You know about me, don't you?"

"Not about your half brother; you'd better tell me" said Jade.

Sigismund did, concisely.

"And I thought if I had knowledge of music I could help him more" he said.

"I see" said Jade. "Blood magic is a large step to take if you go all the way. It irrevocably joins you as closer than brothers; you can feel each other's pain and share it; though you can learn to block that from others within the group. You can share out curses, even the killing curse if there are enough of you; and if one of you has a tummy upset you all get tummy ache until you learn how to dissipate it. If there are less than four in a group the death of one can kill the rest from blood-shock. You care about each other's feelings because they are a part of you. It is generally thought that most youngsters are too young to have to handle the emotional side of it; because older ones can block out physical nasties. I see your eyes laughing in derision over not being able to handle it; and there are those your age and younger who have done it before. If you are determined on this course I say to you make sure you cast some kind of cleaning spell on your silver knives before you slit your palms and the spell to heal such cuts is _episkayo_. It is well to pick an arithmantically good time; for your level, I suggest you work out your names numerologically and arrange that into a suitable date and time. You mingle blood and make it a ritual by the use of some appropriate phrase like 'we be of one blood, ye and I' and take plenty of sweeties to eat afterwards and water, coffee or milk because you'll be as weak as babies, sweating like pigs and drained. It is NOT to be entered into in a hurry. You will then all be Parselmouths and with a greater appreciation of music. If you are serious about it, you can give up your Saturday afternoons as well as the mornings and I'll teach you music formally; I'm probably one of the more qualified. It's a hobby of mine, and it was me moaning that got it established in Prince Peak. I'd not talk about any blood joining too much though; it is an intensely private thing. Sure I can't dissuade you?"

"If we're all Parselmouths we can help Zhanargul more when the fey spirits come" said Beremud.

"Unarguable" said Jade. "You should really be totally comfortable with each other."

"We are" said Beryx "We got together and it was like we'd always known each other. There's nothing any one of us could not share with the rest; I never thought school would be like this!"

"It isn't often; usually it takes more work to put together such friendships" said Jade "Perhaps – though I'm chary of omens – it is an omen that you are meant to work together, even if I did sort of demand your friendships in the first place."

"Guided by fate?" suggested Corneliu.

"Well I'm not about to militate against that just because I loath divination" said Jade "Don't forget to do the sums."

"I can do that all right" volunteered Lindhard "I'm good at Arithmancy; my dad's a freelance curse breaker."

"Well that's a very good start" said Jade.

"I too like such Arithmancy as I have done at my mother's knee" said Corneliu "It makes tunes in the patterns."

"Well YOU'll be a model pupil as a musician then" said Jade.

"And I'm here on a partial scholarship for being able to pass an Arithmancy paper" said Beryx "Dad would never be able to afford to send me otherwise."

"The head is wise in trying to attract the poor but talented" said Jade. "And Arithmancy is such a key subject; and even if you others do not prove good, I adjure you to work like stink anyway. With three good arithmancers in your group it should boost you to competence. I don't suppose either of you are poor at it anyway. Now hurry up for Frühstück; I'm hungry if you're not."

oOoOo

Jade had the first years for Dark Arts first thing; and before she could introduce the lesson, Ernst Reinkessel put up his hand.

Jade blinked. Unless the boy was ill it was rather colossal cheek.

"Are you unwell?" she asked.

"Oh no, Frau Professor, but I wanted to ask if dabbling in blood magic was dangerous and should be stopped" asked Ernst.

"I would advise you against dabbling in blood magic as you put it until you are old enough to understand when it ceases to be dabbling" said Jade discouragingly. "And it is not on my curriculum; so I suggest that you leave the subject, if it truly concerns you, to discuss in a free moment rather than stealing the time from your companions with irrelevant questions. This is a class of the Dark Arts, not ritual magic; as there are no classes in ritual magic you will have to bring your hobby topic to ask one of us who are skilled in ritual after school. Now! I should like to introduce myself first to you; I am Frau Von Luytens as some of you know; and I am about to introduce you to the fascinating study of the Dark Arts."

"But Frau Luytens, blood magic IS the dark arts!" interrupted Ernst.

"Excuse me? You both interrupt and contradict me? What is your name?" demanded Jade.

"I am Ernst Reinkessel Frau Professor" said Ernst.

"Well, Herr Reinkessel, I am amazed that you are already so well versed in the Dark Arts that you feel that you can correct the class professor in what is, and what is NOT the Dark Arts" said Jade "Perhaps such a well versed prodigy as yourself should be teaching the lesson? Why do you not define the Dark Arts and explain to the class the difference between a dangerous creature and a dark creature which was to be my lesson plan before you usurped it?"

Ernst's ears burned.

"I only want to stop trouble in the school!" he cried "Because those Marauders are going to do dangerous magic!"

"Herr Reinkessel" said Jade softly, dangerously "If you truly believed that something dangerous was going on, you would have gone to the Headmistress long since; not tried in a sensationalist and attention seeking way to draw trouble on the heads of others. Which means you do NOT consider it truly dangerous just something you suspect may be naughty, because you have not got a clue about what the youths involved wish to do. As it happens the Marauders came to me before breakfast with some rather specific and well thought out questions to gain advice. There is nothing going on that need concern you; and as you are so keen on defining what is and what is not the dark arts without any idea what you are talking about you may take an imposition of writing out fifty times the book's definition of the dark arts by Friday."

Ernst looked horrified; he now had a mass of impositions over this!

"They've put a curse on me to keep getting lines!" he squealed "They made Baard Trollkettil give me lines and now you!"

"We ALL got lines for speaking after lights out; he only gave you more because you didn't shut up when he told you to!" said Beremud "We didn't make you keep on talking!"

"Silence" said Jade. "Mr Reinkessel you appear to be quite fevered; I gave you lines for interrupting and contradicting me in a rude and ill bred manner. You may go to the sick bay and ask for a dose of glumbumble juice; and you will just have to catch up with the others. I will not have a rude little boy in my class until he has calmed down. You will also on your return beg my pardon for behaving so. Off you go!" she waved a hand. "Class; the dark arts are many and mutable, ever varied and seeming undefeatable; like a many headed monster they attack and every time you cut off a head they grow back a multitude of fiercer heads. When fighting the dark arts one must be as subtle, as changeable and as ready to change as the dark arts themselves. Fortunately most of those who would apply the dark arts are themselves limited in scope and imagination, seeking the dark arts as a short cut to power. Mr Tóth, why would they be ultimately unsuccessful?"

"Because a short cut supposes they don't have the willpower and patience to learn the important but possibly boring things like Arithmancy and can only do stuff by dark formulae not design their own stuff" said Sigismund.

"An excellent answer" said Jade "Once I unravelled your excruciating grammar and vague words like 'stuff'. Yes; a dark wizard who seeks the dark arts because he wants to get ahead is already defining himself as a loser or he would not feel a need to use any quick and dirty methods to put himself ahead. And in utilising those quick and dirty methods he loses the chance to have the versatility of proper study. Essentially the dark wizard is a loner; a man without friends because he distrusts all and fears that if he got close to anyone that they would betray him, that they would be more powerful than him. And this, because he is inadequate and selfish and incapable of reading the greatest truths of the world, isolates and ultimately defeats him. The dark arts are many headed and mutable; but by standing together it is possible to defeat them because a group of dedicated people are greater than the sum of their parts. Sharing knowledge and each using their particular talents leads to a strength that a loner who may send his tools to do a job for him not WITH him lacks. Because he will worry about them becoming too talented in their own field in case they surpass him; in case others admire someone else for their skills. And so he seeks, almost always, to force submission from his subjects and followers; to the extent of fawning at his feet and kissing his robe as Voldemort in England demanded of his followers; grovelling and conferring an undeserved royalty as Gerhardt demanded in Germany. Fear that others might overthrow him consumes the soul of a dark wizard so that he begins to erode the loyalty and trust of followers by turning on them to punish or question or kill. A dark wizard is a miserable creature, never satisfied, never happy; never secure. I would strongly urge that if anyone in this class has considered using the dark arts to feel one up, such a person is very unhappy and if he or she comes to me privately I shall do my best to address the state that makes him or her so unhappy. I don't promise to fix all problems; but I do promise to listen. Fraulein er Virta?" the Finnish child had raised a hand.

"The dark arts are wrong and anyone who wants to use them is evil and doesn't deserve listening to, surely?" said Pirkko.

"The dark arts are a little more difficult to define than that; and anyone who considers using them is miserable; and surely it is better to help someone to a state that they don't want to use dark magic any more than merely condemning them without knowing what has driven them to it?" said Jade "It is easy for someone to get a misconception – say that they need to avenge their family and the dark arts are the only way they can think of to do it. You cannot be dogmatic about people's motives; not until you've walked in their footsteps. And you will be learning too how to use some of the dark arts here; because it is on the curriculum. And be pleased that I shall also teach you counters, as the teacher before me would not have done; you DID choose Durmstrang over Prince Peak after all."

Pirkko retired squashed for the time being.

Jade went on,

"Who can tell me the difference between a dangerous creature and a dark one? Herr Gerecht?" as Beremud's hand went up slightly before Lindhard's and Zdena Masicwicza's.

"A dark creature likes hurting people and a dangerous one only does it out of fear or hunger" said Beremud.

"Well done" said Jade "You read ahead in the text book?"

"On the train" said Beremud.

"The difference is intent as Herr Gerecht said" said Jade "Ordinary dangerous creatures attack to protect their young; their lair; their territory, which is to say their food source; or because you look tasty and they are hungry. There are some grey areas from those creatures that feed on fear; because one might argue that they only sate hunger; but they are generally accounted dark nonetheless. We shall study a selection of dark creatures and I shall be telling you ways to deal with them; and you will be learning curses and counter curses. Your homework is to look up Pogrebin and Erklings and write me three inches each on them, since they are the dark creatures you are most likely to encounter. We might have had a chance to discuss them in class but you can blame Herr Reinkessel for the bell going before we had that chance. However, I would be glad if one of you will let him copy your notes – Herr Dunkelschwann? Thank you, that is good of you" she smiled at Alois as he raised a hand to volunteer.

Zdena Masicwicza stayed behind.

"My brother did not take Dark Arts to ZH and he thinks it is nasty but you make it interesting; if you are really going to teach us counters I should be pleased" she said.

"Your brother learned Dark Arts under an agent of Odessa that Madam Bacsó was forced to accept" said Jade "And he was subtle but essentially not a very nice man. Following him was another Odessa agent who was frankly both stupid and not too tightly wrapped; a clear case of one warped by the dark arts and unable to control them at all. She understood little beyond using the unforgivable curses. You will hear stories; so I will tell you that I was in the upper sixth and caught her hurting my fag with a spell that she was dying from; and the previous teacher attacked me while I took efforts to heal my fag and save her life. So I killed Schrempf. She liked hurting little ones and I was getting sick of it. Some people are too nasty and dangerous to live. I had tried previously to frighten her by demonstrating that I knew more dark arts than she; but it had not been enough. And you will be pleased to know that although I will only teach here for a year, I have already picked a successor who is spending a year learning more defences by working with an auror – the English Vehmgerichten – who is a cousin of mine. This teacher for next year was inititally drawn into a group intending to join Odessa and learned that the organisation was based, essentially, on lies; he is a good man."

"Thank you Frau Professor" said Zdena.

"You join forces with Sonja Orn and Colette Kuelin and you won't go far wrong in protecting yourselves against those of darker nature in your class" said Jade. "That Russian girl Idea Serebrova seems all right too."

Zdena gasped and gazed on Frau Von Luytens with admiration; she knew EVERYTHING!


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Jade had upper sixth Dark Arts in the afternoon; she was not looking forward to it. Essentially those who were taking the class – with the exception of Baard Tollkettil who was just interested – were the bullies of the year who resented not being picked as prefects because they had assumed that if they could force compliance that meant in their minds that they must be leaders.

There would be five in the class; in addition to Baard were Jaromir Frolik, whose sister Jade had briefly taught the year before and had been unable to reach through her rude obstinacy; and what Jade dubbed the unholy trinity of Claudette Reynoult, Calvina Lekkessel and Erzebet Czerny.

"You have suffered under the disadvantage of having the inadequate teaching of Hedda Schrempf for your first ZH year" said Jade "But you have a whole year to catch up; and since the previous year managed, on the whole, to get 'E' or 'O' grades save the two who decided that they could not be bothered to listen to my pearls of wisdom and effectively opted mentally out of the class, you should have no trouble." One of those two was Jaromir's sister.

"My sister was an idiot, Frau Von Luytens" said Jaromir.

"I'm afraid so, Herr Frolik; but I wasn't going to say it first" said Jade. He was potentially dangerous; a bully who did not lose his temper at all. If he listened at all to her talk about the inadequacies of dark wizards he might even be driven to think. He might be a bully because it was all he knew; in which case the class might help break the mould. She took a deep breath; and embarked on her discussion of what dark magic was; and wherein lay the manifold deficiencies of those who would embrace the dark arts as a short cut to grabbing power to themselves. She aimed it more at their age group than she had for the little ones, though she still used her father's description of the dark arts as many headed and mutable. Then she went on,

"Since the dark wizard is paranoid and voluntarily isolates himself he is vulnerable because even his most loyal followers – and he has probably made their loyalty less firm if he has acted suspiciously towards them – do not give their all to protect him; only as much as they can get away with. They are likely to be punished for failure whatever the circumstances; and so are likely, if they feel a task doomed to failure, to avoid taking risks because they will be punished, win or lose. We may draw a very personal parallel here; Hedda Schrempf used the cruciatus curse on any who returned an essay that did not satisfy her. As she was herself limited, good library work was often too esoteric for her and so she punished for what she did not understand; as well as for sloppy work. So it became essential to provide just enough for a pass without doing any thinking on your own time because that earned her ire as much as if you turned in nothing; so you are all in the habit of turning in sloppy work that is barely enough. I will not punish you for poor essays; I will comment on them and if they are poor enough I may require you to re-write them. I will merely point out that since the idea of doing essays is to show me the level of your understanding and allow me to improve that, then if you do not work you punish only yourself; and that will be reflected in poor marks, Fraulein Reynoult if you are pulling faces like a kindergarten child you are almost asking to have me see that you go to bed at eighteen o'clock for a week; or if you are ill, I suggest you find a toilet to be sick into. I do not have to give you time and pearls of wisdom; if you are too childish to recognise that I issue instructions and homework for YOUR benefit I may decide you are too childish to take the ZH and exclude you from my class; that goes for anyone who is too puerile to put in the time to benefit from my talents."

"You can't DO that!" said Czerny, shocked.

"Oh but I can, Fraulein Czerny; any professor has the right to exclude any pupil. You may appeal to the headmistress should I do so; but if I am able to demonstrate poor work she would uphold my decision. I will not exclude anyone for my personal feelings any more than I would mark anyone down for that. Despite the rude comments you have made variously, I do NOT permit my personal feelings to rule either my discipline or my teaching; and I would remind you that it was the Asimova girl to whom I gave an imposition for jinxing you not you; because as I understood the situation, Asimova had used the jinx to reprove you for attempted bullying. And were you not still saying that my partiality took the boy off you the affair should have been ended; but you are itching to have it out and so let us discuss it. You wanted him to fag; he chose another who was willing to take him. That should have ended the matter. It did not; and an incident occurred that I made mild punishment to a blatant transgressor who, nonetheless, had some justice on her side; hence it was a mild imposition. From the amount of whining you have done since you actually had the cheek and gall to demand that the head interfered; and she, properly, has stood aside from the whole matter. The boy does not like you; why should he fag for you? You EARN respect and EARN followers. And I fear you are an illustration of the kind of dark wizard who would force compliance; not win loyalty in any form. Such a fuss over a fag! This is the only school I know of that has fags; the English schools certainly do not, and you know, the English manage to do well enough to win triwizard competitions without being waited on hand and foot."

"YOU had heaps" complained Czerny.

"Mostly to protect them from other bullying sixth formers" said Jade. "And I don't recall sending them on many errands actually; most of the time they were in my study they were cadging help with understanding their Arithmancy. Now if you are determined to blame me for your own inadequacies in attracting a fag I suggest that you either keep it to yourself and treat me with outward respect or you decide that you cannot bear to be near me and take yourself off to study on your own; I shan't ban you the exam if you prefer to do it that way, but nor shall I mark your work."

"I think I shall do that" said Czerny "You make me angry because you side with the brat over someone who should have been a prefect."

"As a bully you are one of the LAST who should have been a prefect" said Jade "And that is why I protect the brat's rights – which is a different matter to siding with him. But you are too stupid and limited to understand, like Hedda Schrempf herself. I shan't say I'm sorry; being civil to you makes my hair bleed with the effort."

"Are you two coming?" Czerny turned to Calvina Lekkessel and Claudette Reynoult.

They looked away.

Both knew that she could not achieve a high grade without a led class; however much they might loath Jade.

"Good; let us get on" said Jade "I should like you to learn how to hold a corporeal patronus before we go any further."

"Why learn defensive magic? We learn the dark arts surely, not defence against it?" said Reynoult.

"Why Fraulein Reynoult, are you really so confident when you come to summon dementors that you will be able to control them without resorting to a patronus to hold them at bay?" said Jade "I had no idea you were so talented at summoning and control spells."

Claudette Reynoult flushed.

"Is that why we learn it?" she asked.

"That among other reasons" said Jade "Can anyone tell me the two main other uses of a patronus?"

Baard put up his hand and Jade nodded to him.

"It's the only thing to drive off a lethifold attack" he said.

"Good; I'm glad somebody reads the text books from other subjects" said Jade "An English one at that; Newt Scamander is, I believe, the only person to document that a patronus will defeat a lethifold. Having once driven it off you, any suggestions what to do with the wretched creature?"

"It's resistent to magic isn't it?" said Jaromir "I'd think driving it into somewhere where you might burn it would work."

"Good lateral thinking" said Jade "Incidentally a tactic that works well on Huorns too; they are resistant to magical fire but NOT to natural fire set around them. When attacked by Huorns, the pupils of Hogwarts filled a ditch with brushwood well soaked in petra oleum and fired it as the huorns tried to cross. They also sprayed them with petra oleum from flitguns lit by spell as they sprayed; flying on brooms to attack the huorns. I confess I'd see how resistant the damn lethifold was to assimilative correlation by association and try to turn it into a crochet blanket; but I have a warped sense of humour. Fire is good. We do not know if they can swim – it has been hypothesised that they can cross rivers – so drowning is out. Forcing it into a metal trunk with locks and starving it is a cruel thing to do but perhaps the only other alternative. The other use of a patronus, by the by, is to send messages or lead others to a place you designate; and there is no harm in considering the idea of sending the message 'help I'm about to be eaten by something nasty' as a defence if you have friends who will come to your aid. . A patronus can also interact physically; I have heard of a duel won when one contestant used his patronus to carry his opponent out of the piste, out of the castle and into the lake. It was Harry Potter incidentally; and the one who got a wetting was Hedda Schrempf when she was still a schoolgirl your age Now, on to patronuses; the way to form a patronus is to draw on good memories and everything in your life that is positive. Incidentally, your homework tonight I shall not mark because I want you to write out all the things in your life that ARE positive; this is purely for your own reference. When a dementor is close, or a lethifold is choking the life out of you, drawing up positive thoughts can be a little difficult, but if you have written down all that is good, it is sometimes easier to recall what you have written down. Like good revision. I will give you a moment or two to reflect on a good moment; a day out with your family, perhaps; a good snog; getting good grades in ZP exams, winning a quidditch match. These are the sorts of things that can fuel a patronus."

"What do you think about?" asked Jaromir.

Jade grinned.

"How good it was to have a healthy son once all the pain and pushing was over, despite the fact that he looked like a pickled plum" she said. "My wedding night. Getting my results. Wrestling a passage of Bactrian text into submission. Making Nachtigall make noises like a steam train. Not all my pleasures are necessarily virtuous you see."

"Was that a curse?" asked Jaromir.

"I accomplished it by chanting" said Jade "I could have cursed it by using Finnish naming magic to tie it in; as it is I understand he had to go to Prince Peak to get it undone by Herr Professor Snape. There don't seem to be many efficient curse breakers here on the continent; might it be something to do with learning how to curse people only without any idea of how to get out of the consequences of a really high level piece of duelling or jinxing I wonder!"

"Defences should be learned in concert with curses to be sure one may deal with anything thrown at one" nodded Jaromir. "It is quite in order then to recall the look on my sister's face when I transfigured her buttons into beetles in the middle of Prague when I was thirteen so her dress fell off?"

"If it was a moment of intense satisfaction it is a possible positive thought" said Jade "I can see Stepanka being irritating enough to make such an act almost irresistible. Did you get in trouble?"

"I was thrashed; it was worth it" shrugged Jaromir.

"Hmm" said Jade "Now when I have more children, if one is playing such tricks on the other I should be more concerned about what had made an enmity so great between them rather than merely punishing; and my husband would agree. But I suppose some parents have favourites and do not feel they have time to get to the bottom of transgressions."

He shot her a look.

"Stepanka is the darling" he said resentfully.

"And do you pass on your resentments to your little sister so that is why she fights all the world instead of protecting and making an ally of her?" said Jade.

He stared.

"She is a girl; surely she sides with Stepanka?" he said.

"Well you daft article, have you ever ASKED her if she'd ally with you or just assumed and pushed her about?" said Jade "I read in your eyes you just shove her about in misery as a means of passing on what Stepanka does."

"Well what should I do?" asked Jaromir.

"Go to her; tell her honestly why you push her about; ask her if you might start again and tell her you will look out for her interests in this year at school" said Jade. "It always amazes me how otherwise clever people can have their brains addled by ill treatment at home; and how many families there are that think that having favourites and beating on their kids is actually acceptable. Now, has everyone had a chance to think about a patronus? Most people put their patronus into the form of an animal that seems appropriate; my husband and I are both wolf animagi. He's a cured werewolf so it seemed appropriate; and so our patronuses are both wolves. My cousin Draco picks for his name a dragon. Baard might also play on his name if he has nothing else in mind and pick a jolly sort of troll."

"Is there anything against having a human form?" asked Baard

"Nothing but your own imagination; though I think some examiners get jumpy about it because theory says it's impossible. Seen it done though; which means it isn't impossible" said Jade.

"Then I would rather go with my first name and see if I can have an image of the bard or skald Egil Skallagrimsson" said Baard.

"Go for it; a bard is a powerful figure" said Jade. "A great symbol."

"You give me hope that I might find some aid against Stepanka; I will, if it does not displease you, use a wolf" said Jaromir.

"I am flattered to think that I have helped you enough to give that form a positive feeling" said Jade. "Claudette, will you go with your name and use fox?"

Claudette paled, recalling that Jade had once threatened to turn her into a fox.

"I – I can't think of anything else" she said.

"It is not positive if you recall my –as it happens – empty threat" said Jade "For what it's worth it is against my ethics to transfigure a being without leaving their brain intact; I spoke in haste and anger on that day. The fox is a powerful symbol too; in the east particularly where fox spirits are powerful shapeshifters. If there is another animal you find attractive, there is no set reason to use assimilative correlation."

"What is assimilative correlation?" asked Baard.

"You are not taking Transfiguration to ZH? It is merely the proper term for the theory you start to learn with cross species switches for using name or similarity to help with the transfiguration. I tend to use it in most fields because it can ease the way; chanting eight repetitions to break a curse on Serafina Payutina for example; her surname means Spiderweb and it would seem appropriate. For Herr Frolik I am afraid I should fall back on what his name sounds like to my English thoughts; to frolic is to caper and dance. So I should use a capering dance to break any curse. Sometimes the connection can be a little tenuous; but any connection, however tenuous, if it seems reasonable to you will give an advantage in the focusing of your will."

"So using my name Leckkessel as a starter and thinking of, say, Ashwinder because one uses Ashwinder eggs in potions is fine?" asked Calvina, interested despite herself.

"Eminently" said Jade "Or indeed salamanders for the salamander blood we use; it goes into a strengthening solution so as the patronus is protective there's a correlation in strengthening too."

Calvina brightened.

"Oh yes, I LIKE that; it feels right!" she said.

"If it feels right, it IS right" said Jade. "Fraulein Reynolt? Are you decided?"

"My father's name is Léon; I will use a lion" said Claudette.

"Excellent" said Jade. "Good; take out your wands and concentrate; and see if you can project a patronus. Focus hard on those happy thoughts; even a non corporeal patronus is of use against dementors but it cannot physically protect you. I'll drill you hard to get a corporeal patronus; I am of course teaching it from the fifth year but for them it is a side issue; not all children of fifteen or sixteen are expected to have a corporeal patronus under the English system but it's a bit of a sad state of affairs for anyone over seventeen not to have one."

"What about those who do not do Dark Arts?" asked Baard.

"I believe the rest of the class belong to the ECC; they learn such things there; and I am pleased with you that you asked. I shall put it to Madam Bacsó that it is a side class that all the sixth ought to study whatever ZHs they take; thank you for drawing that to my attention" said Jade. "Ready? Go!"

A slightly hazy but recognisable wolf burst from Jaromir's wand; Egil Skallagrimsson was rather tenuous. The salamander was fairly solid; the lion wavered and disappeared.

"Not at all bad for a first effort any of you" said Jade "Well done especially to Fraulein Leckkessel. Herr Trollkettil I suggest you research a bit more what your scald looks like; he was cycling between several vague ideas I think."

"There aren't any proper portraits" said Baard.

"Then pick a representation you like – it can be from a children's book if you like – and stick with that" said Jade. "Nicely done, Herr Frolik; that needs a little practice but you have the essentials. Fraulein Reynoult, I think like Herr Trollkettil you have a problem of visualisation; you're muddling images of your father with the lion that represents him. Like Herr Trollkettil, find pictures to help your visualisations. There should be pictures of lions somewhere in the library if only to help out would-be animagi; if there aren't, I'll get you a picture or two to work on, let me know if you haven't found one by end of school tomorrow."

"Er…. Thank you" said Claudette who HATED having to give any gratitude or courtesy to Jade. She hated more the idea of being helpless before a dementor however!

oOoOo

The hopeful first year marauders had meanwhile encountered both Arithmancy and transfiguration.

Fraulein Nachtigall made clear explanations of numerology and the class cheerfully worked out their names in terms of how lucky or unlucky they might be; though as Fraulein Nachtigall pointed out, one made one's one luck with the symmetry of one's own name, so that if turning up a score of eight, normally unlucky, an affinity for spiders might well offset that, or an interest in the far east where eight was considered the luckiest number of all; and which had a subtly different numerology that they would look at in passing and anyone with an interest was welcome to borrow her book on the subject.

Things seemed a little eerie when Corneliu, Sigismund and Lindhard found that they all added up to forty three to reduce to seven, symbolising thought and consciousness; Beryx added up to twenty nine, reducing through eleven to two, symbolising the individual and aggression; and Beremud's thirty two reduced to five, action and restlessness.

"Balanced though" said Corneliu "And five and two also add to seven; the two who are more impulsive are the ones who add together to balance the rest of us."

"Am I barking up the wrong tree or should we be taking into consideration for our ritual that Beryx's eleven might come in for deciding the hours for when we do it?" said Sigismund.

"It might be a factor; or for the eleventh month" said Corneliu "We haven't got any pointers to use the month we're in or October. I'd say it's pointing to seven minutes and seven seconds after seven o'clock on the fifth day of November."

"It's an awful long time to wait" grumbled Beremud.

"And if we get it wrong it's an awful long time to regret being dead in" said Corneliu.

"He has a point" said Beryx.

"I agree" said Sigismund "If it's worth doing, it's worth waiting on; rushing into it just for the sake of it would show us to be juvenile and not ready."

The others concurred. They did not want to make Frau Von Luytens disappointed in them!

They had managed to settle their excitement to pay due attention in transfigurations; which was just as well since Attila Nagy was ready to drop on his son for the slightest transgression. None of them shone here; though Beremud and Sigismund both performed creditably enough to be above average; Lindhard found it very hard. He was not the only one however; and the class star was Sonja Orn who had several matchsticks transfigured into a whole set of needles for different purposes by the time Herr Nagy got round to her; including a curved one from a slightly bent matchstick. It was a compensation for having found even adding up numbers hard; several of the Arithmancy class had to have a quick lesson on how to set down an addition sum because they could not manage to add up even as few as five or six numbers in their head. Alois had been heard to mutter how glad he was to only have a short name since even so he had needed to add up on his fingers.

He was no better nor any worse than most of the class at transfigurations which cheered him up anyway; and he was moved to tease the marauding group for still arguing numbers after they were released from transfiguration for lunch, known here as Mittagessen.

"If any of it mattered, our parents would choose names on numerology and some names would have fallen out of use entirely" Alois claimed.

"That is a point, actually" said Sigismund "But like Fraulein Nachtigall said, we can make our own luck around our names. Besides, to do a proper study one should check the surname as well."

"A name as long as Dunkelschwann? Are you KIDDING?" groaned Alois.

They went to eat laughing; and enjoyed the rest of the day with potions all afternoon, at which none of them shone but none at least called Herr Rebet's vituperation down on his head as both Pirkko Virta and Moxuda Gdglana did. Brewing to verbal instructions so Herr Rebet could watch cauldron action, Pirkko managed to stir the wrong way and Moxuda set fire to her cauldron.

Had they known it, Ihor was snippy for missing his bride, Taryn; and was feeling less than tolerant with stupidity beyond the normal. When it transpired that Pirkko had very little idea of which was left and which was right he calmed down and quickly brewed an ink to write the appropriate direction on her hands – in Finnish and German – that was, he explained, quite indelible and would come off when the top layer of skin wore off.

Pirkko was not sure whether to be grateful or resentful.

Moxuda was resentful as she was made to stay after school and repeat the lesson with a house elf to chaperone her; and Ihor had picked one of those who had had the self punishment compulsion broken early who was NOT averse to making comments on the little mistress's techniques.

The Marauders hastened to the library to get their impots done so they could take their borrowed book somewhere quiet where it would not be disturbed in order to read up if there was any special way to calculate when to do rituals.

There were not; the only instructions were that all groups were different and that any half competent arithmancer should be able to design a best fit time for their own ritual. But at the implied suggestion that this was at least as much to do with believing that it was the right time as anything else they brightened and took it as confirmation that they were on the right track.

They enjoyed the introduction in which Herr Professor Snape wrote rather waspishly that no virgins or unicorns had been harmed in the writing of the book and he bet that half of those who had read this far were disappointed. Though some of the concepts were difficult, they enjoyed the English professor's dry humorous approach and Sigismund wondered why Baard had found it so hard to understand.

"Unless we're so ignorant that we're missing the point entirely" he added.

"Herr Trollkettil is so boring he hardly needs defensive spells because he puts dark creatures to sleep talking at them" grinned Beryx "I should think he misses all the humour and – and irony in it."

"Can it be that simple?" wondered Sigismund.

"I think actually he's right" said Corneliu.

"Besides, there are several passages – the ones I commented on – that would make more sense in Parseltongue" said Lindhard "So I guess Professor Snape is a Parselmouth too."

"Cool!" agreed the others.

oOoOo

Ernst too had managed – with poor grace – to do both of Baard's sets of lines; and handed them in sulkily. Baard did not comment that these lines had arrived later than those of the others since there had been more to do.

Ernst had no intention of doing the lines for Jade; he had decided that she was utterly unfair and so he was not going to attend her class any more, so she would not require the lines. In this he was quite mistaken.

Jade was waiting in his bedroom on Friday night with her arms folded.

"You have forgotten both to hand in the lines you were to do for me, Herr Reinkessel; and to come to me with an apology" she said.

"I'm not coming to your class any more; so I don't need to do the lines" said Ernst.

"Oh? For one thing laddie you do NOT decide which classes you attend and which you do not; I choose whether or not I exclude you. For another thing, the lines and the attendant apology were set as a punishment for your intolerable rudeness to me in class; for a little boy to interrupt and contradict a professor is an offence that would have earned you, from the previous Dark Arts teacher the cruciatus curse at the very least; and from many professors you would have had a more rigorous punishment. I gave you a light punishment because I gave you the benefit of the doubt that you might have felt SOME concern that prompted you to speak up even though you did it in a rude and belligerent fashion. Incidentally I have also spoken to the school nurse; and as you did not report for a dose of glumbumble juice, I have brought you some now; that you will swallow down in front of me."

"You can't make me!" cried Ernst.

"Oh yes I can; I can do it the way one does with toddlers by nipping your nose and pouring it in when you open your mouth to breathe" said Jade cheerfully "Why you would want to be treated like a toddler I don't know; but as you speak and act like one perhaps you are retarded and need to be treated like one."

"I'm not retarded! It's so unfair when I act for the good of the school and get punished for it!" cried Ernst.

"I have yet to hear that you have acted in any way for the good of the school" said Jade "All I hear from your words and actions is that you are seeking ways to make yourself look a sanctimonious self righteous little sneak by finding things to declare improper – by YOUR criteria – in order to try to get your fellows into trouble. That's bullying my laddie-buck; and I despise bullies. And by the way, your fellows have shown you a remarkable degree of tolerance; a lot of eleven year old boys would scarcely resist jinxing you into a ball or beating you up."

"We couldn't do that" said Sigismund "Five on half a man isn't fair."

"Well I think that shows up which are the gentlemen in this argument" said Jade. "Now, first, you are going to drink this glass of glumbumble juice; then on Sunday afternoon you will come to the detention room and you will write the imposition I have already given you; and a further fifty repetitions of the first and last stanzas of Kipling's 'The law of the jungle'; which I shall quote now for you to contemplate on since you find obedience difficult. And by rules and laws of courtesy is society made; and without society we fight each other and most die, to paraphrase Lucius. Be thankful I do not – yet – make you write out the whole poem fifty times; this is your last chance. Do NOT make me fetch you to the detention room. Now listen;

"Now this is the law of the jungle – as old and as true as the sky

And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it shall die."

She paused briefly then resumed,

"Now these are the laws of the jungle, and many and mighty are they;

But the head and the hoof of the Law and the haunch and the hump is – obey."

"That's got an awfully good rhythm, may we copy the poem out in its entirety?" asked Sigismund.

"You may borrow my book on Saturday so long as you have it back for Herr Reinkessel on Sunday" said Jade "If you lot are intending to get into mischief it won't be long before you know whole chunks of Kipling's poems by heart; he usually has an apt poem to set for impots and learning poetry is as good a way to keep naughty spirits occupied as any. Besides, it comes in for chanting; Kipling was a Parseltongue and his symmetry is very compelling at times. Swig this down now young Reinkessel and then the lot of you hop to bed; busy day tomorrow for those of you with Saturday classes. And I shall discuss with the head whether you will have another chance in my class or whether you will be excluded; which if you are will necessarily mean informing your parents"

Ernst had little choice but to swallow down the disgusting stuff; realising in horror that his parents would be mightily shocked if he was excluded from a class.

"I did not mean to be rude Frau Von Luytens" he said "I meant to do the right thing!"

"Well for the apology I am inclined to be ready to let you rejoin the class" said Jade "But I do hope you realise that not only did you go about doing what you thought was right in so wrong a way but that taking it on yourself to dodge an imposition and try to cut a class requires your attendance in detention. You can be pleased at least that you have not to brood on the apology having managed to give me one that sounded fairly sincere. You look puzzled; you lot get into your pyjamas and I'll come back in ten minutes with an extension on your lights out to see if you can't ask me what puzzles you so."

It might be that he was as muddled about doing what was right as little Fred and Flo Visick who were now model children and as mischievous as any, all from a passing comment from their father.

oOoOo

"I don't understand why it's all right for them to have a secret society and want to commit acts of mischief and why scary stuff like blood magic is all right" said Ernst when Jade returned.

Jade sat on his bed.

"When I first came to Durmstrang" she said "There was precious little mischief; instead there was bullying. Bigger kids threw the cruciatus curse at will; stood juniors on tables to burn their legs with their wands; hit them about. The little kids were thoroughly cowed. This was because of the control Odessa had on the school; because Odessa as an organisation as an expression of dark wizardry could only really thrive in an atmosphere of bullying and fear. I introduced the concept of Marauders – imported from English schools – as a means of fighting back against the bullies. A couple of groups who had the guts to stand up together to fight against bullies and stand for what was right; those who wanted to oppose Odessa and all it stood for. To fight bullies and dark wizards they must practise skills of sneaking around to practise catching them out; and duelling; and learning, if necessary, to hide so as to fight another day if a battle is too hard to tackle. If the three girls in the upper sixth who like pushing kids around combined, this five might be able to stand up to them; but it would be a damned close run thing. If the rest of you juniors backed them, all well and good, but most kids who are NOT marauding types prefer to take the line of least resistance. When I catch them in the corridors at midnight I shall whack huge impots on them; screeds of poetry to learn or lines to write or toilets to scrub according to circumstance and my whimsy. Marauders do not choose to maraud; they are invited. These five must prove they will stand up to bullies. They have impressed me so far in being more tolerant to a sneak than most boys their age; you see there is a difference in reporting mischief that is dangerous – say they took it on themselves to scale the walls of the castle; that is a danger to themselves, especially if one of them was in a bit of a funk about it and did not wish to admit this; and through fear, fell. His injury or death would then be on the others; that would need to be stopped. If you fear blood magic you silly boy you should have come to me and spoken up first thing – rather than waiting for class and making a song and dance of your supposed virtue. That was not, from where I was sitting, the act of a boy really scared but a boy wanting to be known as one who holds the morals of his fellows in his hands; and by your flush that struck a chord. You'll win more notice and regard by working hard and not putting yourself forward to be made a fool of."

"But there are so MANY people here; I feel so anonymous!"

"Ah, now we have some meat; you feel almost in the position of the boy who wants to use dark magic because he feels alone and helpless. And you are using a form of dark magic you know; don't look so shocked. What else is the attempt to make others look worse so you may look better than a form of attempting mind control of the staff? You aren't using magic to do it; but as the definition of dark magic tells you, it is the intent that counts more than the actual spells used. The tickling charm is harmless; but suppose it is cast by an evil man on a small child to make her giggle helplessly so when a pervert who likes to have sex with little kids does what he will with her it appears that she enjoys it? That is dark. And I know an actual case so I know what I'm talking about" added Jade grimly. It had not been the tickling curse but actual tickling Jonathon Malfoy had used on her and Lydia; but the circumstance was the same. "Now as to blood magic; it is neither dark magic nor light magic. It is a form of ritual magic. It may be used in a dark way but it is not, if undertaken willingly, of itself dark. These kids are looking for a way to help a younger sibling of one of them; why and in what circumstances is none of your business. And blood magic – freely entered into and willing, and therefore not dark – is one of the things they are considering. I have advised them. They can take my advice or not; at the end of the day, so long as they do not do anything actually dangerous – which they are not – I have no business to interfere. They have read the only rational and literate book on the subject and if they understood half of it they should be better informed than the majority of feeble minded idiots that hear the words 'blood magic' and switch off their brains. Are you feeling better informed?"

"I think so Frau Von Luytens; th-thank you for taking the time" said Ernst.

"And please will you stop interfering with us?" said Sigismund "We shan't get YOU into trouble; if we're tracked back to the dorm we'll own up and tell anyone it wasn't you like we told Baard that Pyotr and Alois weren't talking."

"Well I guess if you want to spoil your sleep running about half the night it's none of my business" said Ernst not very graciously.

"At least I hope you see why the staff rejoices now Odessa is gone that little kids feel buoyant enough to be silly and have real fun" said Jade.

"Why did the head let Odessa let there be bullies? She must be weak" said Ernst.

"You haven't got a clue!" shouted Sigismund half getting out of bed.

"GET back down and pipe down or you'll be joining him in detention with some choice lines on hasty tempers" said Jade. "Ernst, grown ups can be bullied and threatened too; and Frau Bacsó had to take the choice of having partial control or having actual Odessa officers in her place after they killed her for making waves and all the children drilled to fight and die for Odessa. That was not a choice that was easy to make. Also she had been brought up in a Durmstrang where fearing every day until you were big enough to one of those who could throw their weight around was normal. I have been largely educated in England; where we do not do such things. Which is why we now have prefects; to help the staff and for pupils to go to that is NOT then sneaking to complain about bullying. Now! It is late! Good night!" and she left them to it.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

It would not be true to say that Ernst became a normal mischievous little boy overnight but he grudgingly admitted that playing the fool, whilst stupid, was better than bullying and if they meant to fight bullies then he supposed a society to that end was not to be deplored.

The five did not give him a slow hand clap in ironic applause for his grudging tolerance but smiled and said nothing.

It had more dignity; and Sigismund was particularly aware that he had nearly shouted at the boy for insulting his mother and would have thereby given the game away. It was well to be prudent and better to say nothing than to say too much. In which Sigismund had learned more wisdom than many an adult.

oOoOo

Jaromir Frolik had meanwhile sought out his sister Bronislava.

"Now we don't have Stepanka in the way of both of us I thought we could maybe have a frank talk and see if we can't form an alliance" he said.

She regarded him suspiciously.

"What's your game?" she demanded.

He made a gesture of frustration.

"This is what we have become through a princess of a big sister – that we compete to get SOME attention and have no trust in each other; I want a sister who's a sister. You and I, we are both sidelined."

"She is the pretty sister; mama does not like boys and papa does not think you a man because you are not loud like him" said Bronislava "And so you study the dark arts in the way that Frau Von Luytens has spoken of, that you look for a way to be one up because you have always deep down known you are one down and so picking the path to make yourself more of a loser."

"Frank enough" said Jaromir "It was a comment of Frau Von Luytens that made me realise I was missing out on having a sister; that you and I both lost out. We are learning to make a patronus; it is a protective spell to help against certain dark creatures that cannot be driven off any other way; some of them suck and drain positive thoughts and make you feel like the worst thing in the world is happening to you. You have to use positive thoughts for a patronus; and one of the best things I can recall is when I turned Stepanka's buttons into beetles so her dress fell off; and when I said it had been worth the beating Frau Von Luytens said that she and her husband would be more interested in why their children quarrelled so than in punishment. And she's harder than sin; she killed the previous dark arts teacher and no-one can counter her jinxes. So it is not weakness."

"I think papa is weak because if he was strong he would not have to bluster. There!" said Bronislava. "I would not admit to him that I like to write poetry because he would jeer and call it a foolish waste of time; and would not even let me justify it by saying that I have heard others say it is useful for this chanting."

"Is it? Well if you want to write poetry and not use it for chanting, you do. I'll not tell papa. But would you like to chant? Shall we go together?"

"I think I would; because if I can learn more about real poetry that would be nice and I can claim it part of my homework if it is in a school book too" said Bronislava.

"Then we shall learn. I think it would be useful; it is subtle and can lay in magic deeper than mere jinxes" said Jaromir. "I should be protecting my little sister not taking out my hatred of Stepanka on you; you dislike her as much as I, don't you?"

"Of course I do!" said Bronislava "Does she not take every opportunity to remind me that I am plain? To taunt me that I shall never get a husband? I want to do better than her at school and if I can't get a husband to get a job that pays more than any husband she can catch because now that Nachtigall fellow is out of the running because he is disgraced. Is Fraulein Nachtigall the daughter of the uncle who got himself turned into a werewolf?"

"Stepanka did not tell the whole story; as I understand it Heinrich Nactigall's father paid to have a werewolf bite his brother and all the family except this oldest girl who was at school because of the inheritance. I can see someone hating a sibling that much; as we hate Stepanka. But I do not think I should ever go that far!"

Bronislava shuddered.

"It's rather drastic. I guess I'd like to see something spoil her looks but I wouldn't want to be the agency of it."

"Well, I guess if WE have any problems being siblings we ought to ask Frau Von Luytens about it; because she is so very clever. I did not think I would respect someone reared to learn defence against the dark arts but she is so strong – and she does not prate that the dark arts are wrong and evil. She teaches that those who rely solely on the dark arts are sad weaklings because they can't manage to do things the way that takes more effort and because they feel a need to scare people. I expected her to describe Prince Gerhardt and Voldemort as scarily dangerous; not as a fat-arsed twerp and an egregiously sad little fuckwit!" said Jaromir.

"She hasn't used language like that with us" said Bronislava, impressed "She said Gerhardt was flabby in body and mind and Voldemort was a loser with delusions of adequacy."

"Which comes to the same thing" said Jaromir. "Did you consider the dark arts as a way of being ahead?"

"Of course I did; and when Frau Von Luytens said that anyone who did that must be pretty miserable and she was ready always to talk because even if she couldn't fix things she could listen I thought about going to see her. I was going to talk to her after chanting actually. But now you've come and talked to me I guess we can both be better than that. Though you've only got this year."

"I can study extra things on my own time; and the chanting will be something new too. If Frau Von Luytens can recommend books I can buy them to work from. Or perhaps I can use yours if you take it further" he added.

"Yes; and I will too study Arithmancy to high level though it may be hard. And you can study that out of books too; you took it to ZP didn't you?"

"Yes; I found it too hard to go on. Frau Meyer was not a good teacher. You are fortunate to have Fraulein Nachtigall; if Frau Von Luytens says she is good, she probably is. Perhaps I might go and see her and ask her to go through the principles I have failed to understand; and perhaps I can study enough in the year, if I work too in the holidays, to take the ZH." Said Jaromir.

"You are clever and hard working; I would like to be more like you than like Stepanka" said Bronislava "She has only two ZHs both at 'A'; you are taking three and if you can take the Arithmancy too, you will double her efforts!"

Jaromir grinned.

"And one in the eye for papa who calls me stupid" he said.

oOoOo

Jade regarded the chanting class; it was not large but she was pleased with the turnout. Jaromir was the oldest and a surprise attendant; she smiled and nodded to him. Her satellites of the lower sixth had turned up; Zhanargul and Saula, Hilde Mundnimbus, Jochen Wiesel, Stiv Molotov and another surprise in Takeo Namadzu. Zhanargul and Saula had done some chanting, allied to the ECC; they hoped with extra lessons to take it as an extra ZP in their lower sixth year; if they did not do well they could always re-take the year after. Zhanargul was ambitious to study it to ZH on her own time; and Jade was encouraging. Those hoping to take it with the rest of their ZPs were Desolina Uccello, Gisela, the Asimov twins and Sigismundus de Brujin, who had fagged for Franziska Schiff last year and was a hard working academic. Gisela and the twins were blood group too.

Those younger than them would have a very good chance of getting good results; the Eulenspiegel twins, Yorik, Sofie's older brother and Scholastica, Desolina's little sister; and below them four more of the blood group who understood the importance of chanting, Axel, Wencelada – who had very good reason to think it amazing for the healing of her heart that made her a normal, active child – Grishilde and Zyrillis; joined too by Diliana Zhikova and Lothar Wiesel, Jochen's younger brother.

It was no surprise to have the four marauders in the second nor Arkadi and Herwald who had joined in the previous year and who were luminaries of the ECC; Erdmute Nachtnatter was a surprise but as another academic she could see the advantages.

In the first, the five would be marauders were obvious; Bronislava a surprise; Pirrko should not be a surprise as a Finn; Zdena and Sonja came but not Idea; and the allies Alois and Suzette. In addition, Ihor Rebet had resumed classes to take his own knowledge further; and Orlando Carcano had swallowed his pride to begin learning alongside small people and had brought his wives since Jade had assured him that muggles and squibs could assist chanters and could always use the theory to help write a chant. Kathleen had the poetry of the Irish in her soul, though she would not have come save for Orlando; Anastasia was keen to see if she had enough inherent magic that she might perform some magic through a chant where she could not with a wand.

Jade smiled.

"This first lesson we shall have all together" she said "As revision for those who have studied some. Those who hope to take the ZP this year will be coming among you too to help you out. They will also be doing extra classes in the week. From next week, those who worked with me last year will have their own class of largely theory; and I shall hear them chanting while I set the rest of you theory and vice versa. Herr Frolik, are you here for interest or do you wish to work like stink to take a ZP?"

"I'd like to take it to ZP level even if I'm not good enough for the exam" said Jaromir "I'm also hoping to study some Arithmancy on my own time; I didn't understand some of the principles so I didn't go further than ZP; and I only got an 'A'.

"Both Fraulein Nachtigall and I will be glad to help you out with that" said Jade "I'm sitting a detention tomorrow afternoon; come and sit in with me and I'll see what you don't understand. No reason I should be as bored as my little victim after all."

There was some laughter; and Jaromir gave a curt nod. It was not, after all, a detention for him but a chance to get on.

"Thank you Frau Von Luytens" he said.

"You're welcome" said Jade. "First lesson is learning how to breathe; not as easy as it may sound. Those who have been doing it a while should find it second nature; but I do want to check you've not lost good habits over the long holiday."

There were some sheepish nods; it had not become second nature to all and a little revision would be helpful.

"And however much it hurts at first, you new oiks, it's well worth it for what you can do with it" said Zlatka.

There was a little consternation amongst some of the neophytes; the concept of something they thought might be gentle singing actually hurting was not what they had expected.

"As Zlatka said; you will learn to use your lungs more efficiently in breathing as I shall teach you from the chest" said Jade "Even as exercising muscles causes aches and pains at first, so too will exercising your lungs; which are supported by muscles. This is why your homework will be to practise breathing for three minutes every day – so that in time it will come naturally and will NOT hurt. The ZP – or rather OWL – will require a chant sustained for an hour. Without trained lungs you WILL falter long before this. Even with trained lungs, those of us who took part in an eight hour chant – and who contemplate an eight to ten hour chant that is being planned for some fifteen months time – found it hard. I'm in the top half dozen chanters in the world; and I'm NOT looking forward to going through all that again; no you don't need to know details, but it is to break a curse laid in by the fey a long time ago which will help diminish their overall power as well as having certain other beneficial side effects to some other people" said Jade who had been contacted by Severus over a thought that perhaps now they had enough people it might be possible to break the compulsions on elves to self punish over the whole of Europe. A fantastic idea in all senses of the word; for it would involve chanting for the hours of daylight on the shortest day over three or four time zones; for a full twelve hours in total even if not all chanters took part in the full time required. The circle would still need to be maintained before sunrise in the west and after sunset in the east; but in those circumstances locum tenens chanters might take over before and after local sundown. And Zlatko and Zlatka and Zhanargul were likely to be ready to volunteer as secondary chanters at that, and would be welcome.

The class worked hard; and Jade heard those who had been part of her original group explaining to the newcomers that Frau Von Luytens had used chanting to cure Wencelada's heart that had been so bad not even the best transfigurationists could manage; and had turned their blood into a vial of unicorn blood before their eyes as a demonstration.

She might lose some; but on the whole the ones who had come were already convinced.

They went thankfully to Mittagessen, exhausted and hungry.

The musicians were to come to Jade after Quidditch; Beryx and Corneliu were both keen and rather good at quidditch as had been seen in their flying class; and Frida Rundqvist was pleased. She was having trouble putting together a first team from the top three years! Jaromir was the only one any good in the upper sixth; and he played keeper. Zhanargul had already proved herself as a chaser, but of her year only Stiv had any kind of ability which was not saying much; so he too was a chaser, the three made up by Zlatka of the fifth, who was good but not in her brother's class. Zlatko was a brilliant, if sometimes erratic, seeker; he could be sidetracked – like Jade herself as she admitted wryly to herself – by academic pursuits; except that unlike Jade he would take his academic pursuits onto the quidditch pitch. Gisela Schutman, little sister of Jade's factor Ruprecht, and Sigismundus de Brujin were the beaters.

"And the advantage in it" remarked Jade to Frida "Is that you'll have the greater number of the team for three years, and a chance to hone them into a really good team, not the bunch of individuals we had with last year's team, for only about half were really a team. The Eulenspiegel twins aren't the best in the world but they DO work well with the Asimovs; and when you lose Jaromir, then Harald Trollkettil is there as keeper, which as his brother is death on a broom is unusual but lucky. You can then play the younger twins when Zhanargul and Stiv are complaining of too much homework to get them eased in for when the next two leave. And hasn't Wencelada come on, among the younger ones? She's not in the same class as the three boys in her year who excel, but doesn't it make your heart sing to see her enjoy it when she could barely walk upstairs before?"

"It is a joy to see anyone enjoy the game" said Frida "And she is keen enough that with work she might make the team too one day; and that must make her so happy. Your chanting has done wonders; so I shall not resent that you take children away from Saturday morning practice."

"If it can be timetabled in properly when there is a full time teacher it will be handy" said Jade "I'm happy that the kids don't resent their loss of leisure; I've also actually got six babes who are coming straight from quidditch to music lessons with me – it's a side shoot from chanting – all volunteers. Still, a busy child is not in trouble!"

"I am glad you helped me to understand that I was making quidditch tedious by not leaving it to voluntary choice; the ones who had said they hated it have forgotten that this year" said Frida.

"Kids are lazy little ratbags – unless they want to do something" said Jade. "Keep it fun and they'll work like stink for you. Works with other things too; Dark Arts, chanting, music; even Arithmancy. If I'm coaching remedial Arithmancy – which I do as a favour if I'm asked nicely – I find there's a huge incentive to use chocolates to count rather than fingers. Children are attached to the elemental plain of hungry."

Frida laughed.

"You understand them very well!" she said; and if there was a note of wistfulness in her voice at least Jade had shown her the way not to alienate the youngsters even if she could not make them love her and run to her the way they ran to Jade.

oOoOo

The music class went well too. Corneliu was far ahead of the other four of course; and Jade asked him to bear with them and help her get them over the first steps of theory. Corneliu played violin; but Jade used a keyboard to demonstrate the mathematical relationships between the notes. As this was something Corneliu did not know he was pleased to learn something new and said so.

"The Arithmancy of a tune can lie in the differences in notes in a chord or sequentially as well as in the pattern of the tune" said Jade "Using music for magic is very subtle. And too music is of itself a delight that we all crave as food for our souls. That is another reason this ruddy castle is so cheerless; not enough beauty to feed the soul. It all helps to isolate and alienate the children here to make them ripe pickings for less than savoury gangs to prey on, either as victims or as recruits, glad of some kind of sense of belonging. I'm getting a load of pictures and hangings in to cheer the place up; hangings on the walls will make it seem warmer even if it doesn't keep all the draughts out. And your music will cheer us up too. I'm going to let you four reprobates loose on a number of my instruments to see what you like playing; perhaps if you are careful Corneliu will let you use his fiddle. We can get in appropriate instruments when I know what you're interested in; and if it's percussion, that's as valid as any other instrument. Especially in terms of chanting. Some cultures use drums in lieu of chanting to lay in spells; certain African cultures for example. You'll probably pick up a good bit of comparative magic while chatting here and in chanting class; as well as in dark arts so if you get interested I can arrange you a correspondence course for OWL. Marauders usually take more exams than most; it comes of being drawn from the nosiest."

That raised a laugh! And it was indeed something to think about!

"Geomancy is fun also; and that is a new subject here" said Beremud.

"Yes; and all credit to Fraulein Schwefel for teaching herself so well" said Jade "You all enjoy it?"

"Yes" said Sigismund, glancing around "You wish us to take it far?"

"I wish you to enjoy learning what comes naturally; save Arithmancy that I think you SHOULD take at least to ZP" said Jade "But if you study geomancy you may then make such maps as the marauders' map that you will doubtless one day see; where one may project the different levels of the castle and see where move the footsteps of any who are abroad."

"NICE!" said Sigismund.

"Indeed" agreed Jade "And that charm was invented by Professor Sirius Black who also taught himself; and who introduced the subject into English schools. Before then it was taught piecemeal; a little to help apparating, and such aspects of it as were useful in various jobs and ministry offices. Do you intend to blood?"

"We do Frau Professor; and we have made calculation" said Sigismund.

"I'd like to look over your calculation if I may" said Jade.

Corneliu fished the grubby piece of paper out of his pocket where it lived; to keep it away from Ernst if nothing else, though he seemed to be likely to be no more trouble.

Jade looked through their calculations and nodded.

"I can find no fault in it" she said "It does appear to be generally a best fit time according to the data you are using; which I should say was sufficient. For any kind of ritual that, say, intended the lifting of one of you from being a squib or a muggle to join would require a little more depth, involving birth dates."

"It's the day before my birthday" said Lindhard "Will that upset anything?"

"Anyone in May? Beremud? That balances" said Jade. "What about the rest of you?"

"Beryx and me are in July" said Sigismund "Aunt Agata must have worried she was going to reach the end of term!"

"Ah, conceived over Halloween" said Jade "And powerful enough as well as having the seventh month. Coreliu?"

"September" said Corneliu "Nine; three squared."

"You have two sevens and an eleven and a five to balance your numerology; nine is a good enough number to make up for not being a third seven. Clever use of the eleven not to reduce it to two; I'm fairly impressed. Go with it" said Jade. "Pick somewhere very private. Don't forget the sugar rush; remember the spell to heal. Having identical pink scars will be giveaway enough to anyone in the know; having bleeding palms will seriously upset some people. Right, kaffee und kuchen?"

"I LIKE lessons that involve cake" approved Beryx.

oOoOo

It was a busy weekend; Jade was also keeping half an eye on the potions dungeon for Ihor while he visited his new family. Not that she minded; Jade was used to being busy. And with Wulf and Ralph there for her every evening she was more content than she could say. Wulf was spending his days patrolling the grounds and the forest to check for any enemies; in case Zhanargul's uncle came in person or sent any physical incursions. There was no harm in being paranoid. Healthy paranoia on the part of the MSHG had kept Harry alive in Hogwarts; and Zhanargul was in no less danger. Her uncle wanted her either dead or possibly forcibly married to a puppet. More likely dead. And if it happened at school, he could wriggle out of any blame. Wulf also made regular trips into Berlin to keep abreast of the muggle world by internet; he was not so skilled at manipulating it as one who had grown up with it the way Jade had, but he had learned well.

He returned with a printout.

"Nurtazin is Zhanargul's name; I don't know if there's anything in this, but I thought I'd bring it back just in case" he said. Jade read the article quickly. The name Tulegen Nurtazin was mentioned with respect to being a backer of an archaeological team investigating what was believed to be a high status Scythian tomb. Jade pulsed Zhanargul, and when the girl came, asked her

"Is your uncle called Tulegen?"

"He is" said Zhanargul "What have you heard about him?"

"He's paying for some muggles to dig up an ancient tomb" said Jade "Any idea why?"

Zhanargul frowned.

"All I can think of is that there might be some artefact he wants to get his hands on" she said.

Jade scowled; considered; and pulsed Lazlo and Clovis.

They teleported in.

"I need you two to forge documents as muggle historians and archaeologists; Clovis, you can be an expert on plant material. Lazlo, you know enchanted items; be an expert on ritual significance. This man is trying to kill our Zhanargul; find out what he's up to. Draco will understand, Clovis; leave Vissy with Lucius and family and see that Tildi only visits you when Tulegen Nurtazin cannot see. Do not let him know you are wizards. You two are from eastern Europe; credible types to take an interest. Draco will help you sort out papers. If there is an artefact he's after it is likely to be dark; you may have to steal it. Be very careful!"

"Yes mother" teased Lazlo.

"We will" said Clovis. "You think he has ambitions to be a Gerhardt of the east?"

"Something along those lines" said Jade "He apparently raises great form spirits for a hobby; not something I'd like to do."

"Yet I wager you'd do it better than most" said Lazlo "You know the dangers; and you have moral scruples."

"If he has a sacrifice waiting it becomes worth their while to obey him" said Clovis "I don't know a lot about them but I have read widely and such things are recommended to keep demons satisfied."

"Laarverly" said Jade. "Well I leave it in your hands."

"You can trust us" said Lazlo.

"More to the point you can trust us not to fuck up by showing an indecent amount of nobility like Ritter" said Clovis laconically.

That had been why Jade had not called on Ritter in the first place; and as males they would be given more respect than any of the girls in the group by the muggle archaeologists.

"The good news is" she said to Zhanargul "We know where he is; even if we do not know why. And that means he can be watched."

Zhanargul nodded.

"Knowing that these men are my brothers and that they watch for me is of great comfort" she said.

oOoOo

Sunday afternoon brought Ernst's detention; and he gazed on Jaromir, also presenting himself at the detention classroom with horror that so big a boy should have to write lines.

Jaromir nodded to him.

"You are the detainee? I am taking advantage of Frau Von Luytens being in a predictable place for remedial Arithmancy" he said, correctly interpreting the younger boy's look and wishing to make it quite plain that HE was not in detention.

Jade nodded civilly to both.

"You have your text book for your first imposition, Herr Reinkessel? Good; when you have done I shall set you out the lines of the second. As both impots are quite long you may take a break for coffee after the first group and to rest your hand. Jaromir, I brought text books as I imagine you consigned yours happily to perdition."

"Well I kept them for Bronislava; it would be profligate not to" said the boy "But the ZP ones are at home so I thank you for bringing yours."

"Between you and me, Frau Meyer was not much of a teacher and I anticipated helping out any who asked me, especially those who had been protégés of mine" said Jade "So I am well prepared; and happy that Katarina Nachtigall is far more competent and of more moderate temper; so I shall have less to do to unravel the confusion of the fourth and fifth."

He nodded.

"She could not explain in more than one way, the way the book said it" he said "And she would issue collective punishments if any did not understand and got it wrong."

"She was a ministry spy" said Jade "And paid to spy; being able to teach was one of those mere bagatelles that were not important. And if she was supposed to be sussing out and setting right Odessa involvement she wasn't much good at that either. I see you and your sister are reconciled."

He glanced at Ernst.

"I do not want to discuss…."

"I have placed a _muffliatus_ spell up to protect us from being overheard; do you think I should be so free in my criticism of a staff member with the small ears of a first year listening? He can hear nothing; it is one way so I can keep myself aware that his pen scratches suitably."

"A clever spell."

"Much used in the Voldemort years to hide conversations from their government spies who were as dangerous as Voldemort himself" said Jade. "My father – my adoptive father – developed it; Severus Snape."

He gasped.

"YOU are one of Snape's children? But of course, you pretended a despite of goblins – a pose you quickly dropped – in order to get close to Odessa. Do you truly not find goblins loathsome?"

"In truth I find some German goblins loathsome; in terms of their fawning subservience. I like goblins who stand tall and meet the eye and behave like normal beings; such am I used to" said Jade. "Fraulein Schwefel has been teaching such in a free school in England and she still feels some distaste; getting Germans in particular used to being fair minded and sensible is an uphill task. You are Czech; you are outnumbered less by your goblins than the Germans so you need fear less and thus hate less. The only difference to their intellect is in the fact that those who grow up with an inadequate diet – whatever their race – will exhibit depressed intellects. I know a number of goblins who are 'O' grade students in Arithmancy – and one lad who took two OWLs a year early and took 'O' in both, Potions and Transfiguration. Now, touching on Arithmancy…."

Jaromir muttered apology and added,

"And yes, my sister and I are speaking and are agreed to be friends; and to ask you to sort it out if we quarrel."

"Excellent!" said Jade. "And I wager you will have no trouble with your patronus for the joy of having a little sister to love."

Jaromir had not thought of this; but it made sense!

Jade went through each section of the book making notes about what he found difficult; talking through some of the principles with him until comprehension dawned visibly on his face.

"You make it seem so easy!" he cried.

Jade shrugged.

"To me it is easy; and perhaps that is why I can break it down and show it to you from different angles. If Frau Meyer struggled herself she would find it harder to explain. Teachers may be poor for a number of reasons; that they are only barely adequate for the job; that they are immensely clever but cannot reach down to the level of their pupils; or that they are distracted by some issue or other. An idée fixe, of some misery in their private life or merely an inability to relate to children. Teachers are human too and it is sometimes hard to appreciate this when one is a child made acutely miserable by their inability."

"Schrempf did not get so much sympathy from you."

"Schrempf had both a mental sickness that meant she liked hurting; AND a lifetime of honing being nasty. The latter was not her fault; nor indeed was the former, but I could perceive no way of curing it. I do not like killing; but I do not shirk it when I can see no other option" said Jade. "And I have no patience at all with wilful stupidity and terminal silliness; so I was not about to try to reach out to Meyer either. Any more than I'm about to try to heal a gulf with Czerny. Frankly I don't like any of the girls in the class but while the other two behave and do as I tell them I'll be civil back and try to get them a good pass. You're all a bit unprepossessing; Baard at least means well. You're the most interesting though I don't like the way you push little kids about; it is the act of a weakling to bully."

"This I am beginning to realise with your introduction of the Dark Arts both to me and to my sister. Who had been going to talk to you about wanting to use the dark arts to be one up until we spoke together. Now we will do our best to be good and not rely on a prop of easy quick magic; it is true that our father is a bully and we both fear him."

"Ah. One copies what one sees; you CAN break the mould and learn to pity him for his weakness" said Jade. "Besides, if you get hard enough to hold a shield charm up against anything he can throw at you, it won't half make a sweet revenge to tell him how much you pity him" she added. "You and your sister should rise early for the ECC; you will learn more defences there and learn how to sustain spells; and too make friends of a lasting nature. You have learned not to lose your temper because ultimately it causes pain and punishment?"

He nodded.

"He calls me weak if I do not answer back and beats me if I do; what do I do?" he asked.

"Continue not to answer back; it annoys him that he cannot seem to taunt you and that is your victory" said Jade "Bullies hate to be ignored. Stepanka can get round him?"

"Oh she is all daddy's girl" said Jaromir.

"A thought to consider" said Jade "If your mother is mentally cowed by your father, it is not impossible that he has been bedding his own daughter; which would NOT help her behaviour; and would make her suck up to make sure he doesn't hurt HER too much in the commission of such a sin. I don't say it is; I have never deep legilimensed her looking for anything of her home life. But I offer it as a possibility to consider."

He stared.

"It might explain much…. Or it might just be that she is their pretty princess. I do not know. I will take steps to find out" he added.

"Remember too that when you leave school and have a job, Bronislava can live with YOU not with your parents – especially if I am right in my nasty suspicions and he starts on her."

"She might yet be lucky to be the plain one" said Jaromir.

"There is nothing wrong with her bone structure; she has mousey hair and her complexion is darker. Which means she should have less zits. If he starts suggesting she use hair lightening potion, THEN you worry. Do not frighten her; but I would, in your shoes, warn her that there might be something amiss" said Jade.

He nodded.

"I will" he said.

They broke for coffee; and the rest of the time was filled for Jaromir with working arithmantic examples under Jade's eye.

"I'll see you for an hour every Sunday, either me or Katarina will teach you that set lesson, and you will put in an hour on each of three other days in your own time working on in the book" said Jade "If you hit a snag you may bring it to me at any other time."

"Thank you" said Jaromir clicking his heels punctiliously.

"You are welcome" said Jade, wondering if Stepanka's behaviour really had been so bad because she was making a subconscious plea for help.

Maybe Jaromir would find out and would tell her. Because when there was a favourite and a bullying father was THAT fond of one princess, one had to wonder…..


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Jade had set warnings into the wards and when two weeks into term she felt an attempted penetration she slipped out in fey space to see what she might see. Any fey who had hit the wards was going to be somewhat disoriented and unlikely to notice her for a while. And she knew exactly where the boundaries were.

The would be intruders appeared to be some specie of wild hunt; not the solid fey such as had occupied the rath near Hogwarts that had come seeking tribute but a purely spirit form hunt, led by a great form spirit of power little more than a dementor. And there were dementors in his train. Their presence meant that there would be enough despair to feed on that the whole hunt could have some corporeal form; but not when disrupted by wards that were powerful enough to make them fight to keep their spirit selves in one piece.

"One question, neighbour" said Jade to the angry and unhappy great spirit "Are you just a group passing through, or are you summoned by the fool Nurtazin?"

"What – what is it to you, High Sidhe Princess?" asked the great form spirit, taking her as such for being in fey space.

"I do the asking; YOU do the answering" said Jade.

"I was sent. What of it?"

"You are still asking questions" said Jade, using the electricity spell toned down to disrupt his form. He writhed. She did not hold it long; it was torture and Jade despised torture. But one had to convince the fey that one could best them before they actually listened and the only language, unfortunately, that most understood was force.

"I regret my foolishness!" it cried.

"Very well. I have a message to Tulegen Nurtazin; tell him that I can counter any Great Form Spirit he cares to summon for I scarcely would have had to build up a sweat for one so weak as yourself. Tell him that his niece is under my protection; and that I will not brook his insolence in opposing her. You may tell him that I am her fairy godmother if you like" added Jade whimsically. "I have forgotten more about demonology than he could possibly ever learn. Tell him to go away and play with himself; it's about all he's good for" she concluded.

With a bit of luck he would overreach himself in anger and try to raise something that was beyond him that would devour him. One might then have to deal with it; but at least it would be matters brought to a head and not have to watch him throwing petty spite for year after year like the Voldemort years and the years of dealing with attacks from Odessa.

"I hear and obey, O princess of the Fey" said the spirit.

"Good; now sod off" said Jade.

The spirits collected themselves and roiled off in a rather reeling and drunken fashion, still suffering the effects of the ward line.

Jade went back to bed.

oOoOo

Tildi had reported several times that Nurtazin was irritable about the way that the archaeologists took things so slowly; he had tried confunding them to move faster but one had been seemingly resistant and had thrown off the confundment and railed at the others that they would be sacked if they did not do things properly. They were, even so, moving faster than they might otherwise have done and had almost reached a burial chamber. She had also reported that her Clovis had seen Nurtazin raise some fey spirits and though she did not really understand, her Clovis had said that the wards Miss Jade had set up would bounce them without trouble. Which they had. It might have been nice if Clovis had mentioned them ahead of time and Jade said so; and Tildi promised to tell him.

oOoOo

The term moved on; and the chanting group settled down with pleasure to find that the initial pain of their breathing exercises started to reduce with assiduous exercise. Jaromir stopped pushing smaller ones about and seemed to take a pleasure in his little sister's presence; and took time to help her with her homework. Jade actually intervened to remind him that he did her no favours if he helped too much; as she would not then be learning properly. And Jaromir took it with an apology both to Jade and to Bronislava. The little girl had a knack with writing poetry that Jade praised her for; and loaned her poetry books to read the works of others to give her some ideas.

Takeo Namudzu seemed calmer with the chanting as well as for the ideas from reading 'Blood Magic – Love Magic'; and spoke up readily about Japanese tradition and dark creatures, and such as he knew about traditions of chanting and Japanese poetry forms; and Jade set the chanting class the challenge of producing haiku, with three lines of five, seven and five syllables as one of the tightest and most controlled poetry forms they would ever encounter; and asked Namudzu to help her mark them for the right spirit as well as strictly accurate metre.

He read Jaromir's and gasped.

It went,

"_Family can mean_

_so many things good and bad_

_warm love and cold hate."_

"Takeo?" said Jade softly.

"This one knows about me" said Takeo. Jade took the poem from him.

"No; he expresses his own feelings; he has a troubled home life" said Jade "I take it that you do also; will it help to talk about it? Sometimes expressing your feelings enables you to deal with it more easily. I will keep a confidence."

"My father is dead; my uncle runs a ryukkan-shugenja, a wizard school" he said "It is customary in the clan to which I belong to take boys away from their parents at the age of five and drill them in the skill of being manly; not to fear, not to have undue emotion, not to heed pain. It is to make us more worthy. I must excel more because my uncle was in charge; I must learn to bear more pain, be more stoic, go for longer without food, run faster and prepare my mind with the emptiness necessary for perfect spell casting by learning to ignore the body. And I was the best and was chosen to come to a school much admired in my country. And here I found that I was not the best in the class though others around me have had a very soft upbringing; and it confuses me. I have seen you run and often thought I might like to maintain my fitness by joining such; for I am much diminished physically when I go home for the holidays. And you show affection to the young ones and it does not seem to make them perform worse; it is so confusing."

Jade shrugged her robe up to show him her back.

"I too was reared with pain" she said quietly "Those cursed scars were laid on before I was seven years old. I could chant them out now; but I never got around to it. My adoptive mother, who is my cousin, has worse ones. Ours were given to beat out devils of disobedience; the sort of thing that most families would not even consider disobedience. Being late because of helping my sister with her tangled hair; saying something that I can't remember because I never got told why it was wrong. I understand about being forged hard. Then, when we were adopted, it was the Voldemort years; and we taught each other occlumensy in case we were tortured by Voldemort. I could cast the cruciatus curse without a wand when I was eight years old because we cast it on each other, my sister and I, to see if we could take it. You can't; but you can endure without screaming for a long time if you're stubborn enough; and I see in your eyes that you know that too. Our testing of each other was out of love for each other; but I think some of what is done ritualistically at this school of your uncle's seems more out of habit than love. The weak ones; were they encouraged to find ways to build up – or were they thrown out, or let to die?"

"Mostly they were thrown out, disgraced" said Takeo "Some committed suicide for being failures. Nobody expects anyone here to kill themselves for being failures. I am angry; and I do not really know why."

"Part of it is envy that they have got here without having to be forged as you were; part of it is resentment that you feel that such forging should give you an advantage; part of it is fear that in the holidays you will return to such a regime after getting used to living more softly; and part of it is from the pain of whatever you do to stop yourself from getting soft" said Jade "I do guess right don't I?"

He nodded.

"I try not to get soft" he said.

"Join us in the mornings by all means" said Jade "Building up stamina DOES improve the ability to sustain spells; it's not something that is generally tested by examination but it is when you go into battle. I grew up with my adoptive parents at Hogwarts; and it was noticeable with the real battle tests we faced which pupils were the ones that ran and practised serious curses on each other. I must say I consider placing too much strain on children counterproductive not actually helpful in their training. They say that what does not kill you makes you stronger; and that is true to some extent. But with small children, making them stronger first can often mean they survive to become stronger yet. I think your uncle goes too far; and so you love him because he is your kin and hate him because he is cruel. And you miss your mother; a man's mother should not be excluded from his life. I concede the point that one should not be a mummy's boy but that is at the opposite extreme. Have you seen me with my son? He gets hugs and cuddles but I let him fall over and bump himself when he must go off exploring because by that he learns. I head him off only if he is trying to take on something too far beyond his capabilities, like trying to climb the wall of the castle at a place where he really can get several feet up. And stopping him from launching himself out of an upstairs window on his toy broom which has not a strong enough hovering charm not to cause him to hurt himself badly or maybe kill himself. I don't believe in smothering children or mollycoddling them; but nor do I consider that such out and out cruelty serves any constructive purpose. And nor do you or you would not be so troubled."

"Part of me wants to challenge and kill my uncle for the death of my friend who I tried to help but who still died because he was trying too hard and fell" said Takeo.

"And what then? Will you take on the school and try to initiate changes? What if the staff oppose you? These things you need to think through carefully" said Jade. His face filled with consternation. "Takeo; I have enough on my plate trying to clean up the wizarding world in Europe; I cannot put my resources behind you. You should instead perhaps go back to the school when you have completed your ZHs and draw away a cadre of youngsters who will listen to your ideas for reform. If you will accept that they will work beside Goblins and muggleborn I will let you bring them to the school I shall be setting up next year and you shall train them there to be ready to enter school; or if you have older ones they will sit in on the lessons, ready to train to be your cadre of teachers when you ARE ready to take the school. And you say wizards; what happen to young witches?"

"They train separately; they learn martial skills but not so many. They learn to be good submissive wives. I am not used to loud girls."

"To my mind the Germans here expect too much submission of their women; some actually take their wives' wands away" said Jade. "Marriage should be a partnership not a submission. I always back my husband in public; we keep any differences of opinion to our own rooms. Not that we've had any" she added "But such to my mind is proper, a united front to outsiders. But if a wife agrees with everything, how then can she reprove her husband if he is about to make a fool of himself? We are back to the situation of a samurai who cannot live with disobeying and cannot live with obeying. And in the closer context of marriage that seems rather extreme. Besides, I've seen muggle films by Japanese director Akira Kurasawa; and most of the women there manage to be fairly forceful in a gentle sort of way. The 'yes My Lord but have you considered how it would look if...' approach rather than the 'are you run mad you idiot?' approach. Still, if they have not to go through such rigors as you have that is at least good; in some respects when growing the female body IS weaker because it undergoes more changes. Actually, you know, it might not be a bad idea if you pick some boys who are just graduating and use them to teach other, younger ones; take on those who fail and tell them that you can show them how to succeed. Which you can; so long as you treat them like a weapon to be forged when there are times of quenching and resting the metal; it's not achieved by hammering all the ruddy while, is it?"

"No it is not" said Takeo "That is a very good analogy. I will consider your words and I shall see too if there are those who are too poor to go to my uncle's school and train them also as well as the failures. Do you believe that the mudbloods and impure blood can perform as well?"

Jade laughed.

"Though I have Malfoy blood and my father knew some unconscious magic I am muggleborn" she said "I had to invent Nefrita Von Strang to get close to Odessa to bring it down; I am Jade Snape. And like the muggleborn David Fraser I am a triwizard champion. I have fought deatheaters; I have killed werewolves. Do I perform less well?"

He stared.

"I – then I shall set up a Ryukkan that will take mudblood wizards; and witches if they will come. And we shall show my uncle that other methods may do as well!"

"Spend, with a chosen disciple or two, time in my school or Prince Peak helping with the teaching and observing" said Jade "You have only the examples of your uncle's school and years of the mismanagement of Durmstrang under Odessa. Let me teach you to teach; then go forth and make your proof. Without some training, I fear that you may lose confidence without experience; and may, especially if there is opposition, find that you suffer reverses."

"You mean that my uncle would set students to raid in order to disrupt my school?"

"Yes" said Jade.

He nodded.

"It would prove good practice if we had an established pupil base; so too it must be kept secret for a while. I will do as you suggest and find others who have like mind. I know one boy who failed the rigors of school at the age of fourteen; but he has gone to a small school for qualifications claiming that the school failed him and it was not his failure. It shocked me at the time; but now I see that he understood more than I. I will write to him straight away" he added enthusiastically "And see if he will join me in this venture."

"Finish this marking first; duties stack in order of immediacy" said Jade.

He bowed.

"I apologise; you are right. I was carried away too much by enthusiasm" he said.

Jade smiled an acceptance; and crossed her fingers that this one might then be sorted out. The Japanese had some odd ideas!

oOoOo

And if Jade thought that with two problem boys more or less sorted out life was to be quieter, she was wrong.

She felt consternation from Lazlo, Clovis and Tildi; and they all turned up looking slightly the worse for wear in the middle of her lower sixth class.

"My goodness" said Jade mildly "I take it that your dark wizard has been causing you some trouble?"

"It wasn't him; it was the blasted wight and his inferii" said Lazlo.

"Right; as it's Zhanargul's ruddy uncle who's the problem let's make this lesson a practical one and you can tell us all about it; you didn't call on me to hit the ground running so I assumed you were handling it."

The boys exchanged sheepish looks.

"We could have sorted it all out then and there couldn't we, by calling on the whole group?" said Clovis in a small voice.

"You pair of blithering idiots, we could have hit you with power to turn you temporarily into a pair of small gods if you needed it" said Jade. "Some of you asked about blood magic; I am part of a blood pact and so are these people among others. Our current mission is to protect Zhanargul whose uncle is the one raising the great form spirits we chanted up wards against. Well there's nothing like practical experience to learn about the dark arts and you kids might just get it. Tell me the worst and how come words like 'wight' and 'inferii' crept into the conversation."

"The tomb they were digging up belonged to a chap called Abaris" said Clovis "And we mooched off to find a wizarding library; Ritter's dad's actually. Turns out he was some well known priest or wizard or both who may or may not have taught magic to Pythagorus; only he wasn't a very nice character. And when we got back they'd broken into the tomb and he had a knife on his chest that wasn't a horcrux as such but it stabbed the first archaeologist who bent over him and drained his life force so old Abaris sat up because it went into him; and then he starts raising inferii that were ready prepared in his burial chamber; and killing the other archaeologists to fuel his power. And Tulegen Nurtazin tries to cast a spell of control because from the wild and rather panicked tone in his voice he was expecting to have to raise Abaris and would then expect him to be grateful, instead of which the fellow is doing it all on his own."

"And then" said Lazlo "Abaris waves a hand and Nurtazin flies backward; which was the point he started gabbling about being useful to the master and begging to serve him. He was using ancient Greek; and we've covered that so we were able to follow it. I don't know any Scythian."

"They didn't have a written language; the best you'll do is a few words and names written down by muggles" said Jade. "It DOES make using runes against the bugger more powerful though, as if he's literate it'll only be in ancient Greek. Illiterate peoples tend to place less value on the written word because generally they have a very competent oral record and trained memories accordingly. Which is one reason I train my memory by learning yards of poetry; sometimes an oral tradition comes in handy too. I take it you decided there was too much going on and hoofed it?"

"We forgot we could use everyone" said Clovis "We should have just creamed him and the inferii; but we're too used to thinking of fifty odd inferii as being overkill."

"Fire generally discourages any number of inferii" said Jade. "Are they still there?"

"No; he had tried to draw us in and we resisted" said Lazlo "And he was busy asking Nurtazin who the other wizards were and Nurtazin was gabbling about getting to a place of safety to use as a base from which to take over the eastern extents of Europe."

"Well let is go and see" said Jade. "Zhanargul you should come; we'll protect you. The rest of you…. Dammit, we can side along them" she added "STAY at the back and only watch."

The other four offered arms to be carried by apportation; and they apparated smoothly to an opened mound with a scene of carnage. Of Nurtazin and Abaris there was no sign; but there were fifty inferii. Hilde cried out in fear.

"Clovis; Lazlo; you shall be the foci so you know what to do next time" said Jade. They gasped as power hit them from Austria and England and other parts of Europe; and then they were concentrating their wands in fire fiercer than any one wizard could produce, a veritable firestorm. And the inferii burned.

"THAT's the way to do it" said Jade. "Let me see if I can't pick up a geomantic trail on this ruddy wight and Nurtazin" she walked around, feeling with her wand and grimaced. "I think he knows enough to have summoned some fey to cloud it by passing through the place he apparated" she said. "we can use Zhanargul's blood to locate him later; poor bastards of archaeologists, this is going to have to be so hushed up; you can see the ones that weren't caught in the fire have been exsanguinated. I think we're going to have to burn them too and fake up some kind of freak lightening strike. Well you youngsters won't learn any younger; help me set the scene. Your uncle doesn't seem to care much what muggles see" she added to Zhanargul

"Excuse me Jade but if you ask me he was too busy shitting bricks to even consider it" said Clovis. "Abaris was casting wandless and wordless for all the world like he had an Oxford accent and Malfoy connections."

Jade laughed.

"Well it DOES go to prove we aren't the only ones to do it" she said. "Now I ought not to drag in the rest of you save Zhanargul in any more."

"I think we will learn more for being involved" said Takeo. "And the upper sixth boy who chants, Frolik."

"I agree" said Jade "And the Azimov twins. We meet after school after homework; don't skimp. Twenty two o'clock in the dungeon we meet for ECC; it's next to the potions dungeon, Takeo. And then we use blood magic to get a line on Nurtazin at least; and hope that where HE is, so too is our wight. On account of how we can't hope that the wight would go along with Uncle Tulegen's immediate plans of kill the wench grab the country. Unless Tulegen can talk very fast and suggest too killing Zhanargul's parents shortly after so there is one country under the joint control. It depends on the personality of Abaris; whether he is paranoid about an underling having power or whether he is content to move slowly and through another. Clovis, Tildi and Lazlo, off to the library; actually one of you go and pester Von Frettchen about his library; lay on thick that he doesn't want snogging his new bride to be interrupted by a serious incursion of dark wizard."

"On it" said Clovis.

"Well!" said Jade "If it isn't one thing it's another!"

oOoOo

They were confronted at Mittagessen by the rest of the bloodgroup demanding to know what had happened; and Jade sighed and gave a potted account. "And only volunteers from the fourth and above to join us" she said, knowing that banning the Eulenspiegel twins was fairly fruitless.

oOoOo

The group gathered in the dungeon late at night; and there had been a few mutters from younger ones that they were excluded but they were obedient children and Jade had kissed the girls and ruffled the hair of the boys when they promised not to get involved. The youngest there were Xanthe and Xanthippe as was only proper as the other half of the senior marauding group.

"Zlatka has bemoaned the fact that no divination is taught here as she discovered accidentally that she is a dowser" said Jade "So we're going to try to do this a better way. Normally we should take blood ritually from Zhanargul and get a direction of her uncle from it and approximate distance; then move to a sufficiently distant place for another such reading and triangulate. Which you'll learn about in Geomancy. I however intend to make use of Zlatka's unusual ability and have her dowse with Zhanni's blood on a map. And I have borrowed for the purpose a scrolling globe that projects an appropriate part of the world; part of a metalworking project at OWL – ZP level – of a friend in Hogwarts where goblin crafting is taught."

Jaromir gasped, having had all that was going on quickly explained to him with his invitation.

"Surely that is beyond the level of ZH enchantment?"

"It's different" said Jade "Much relies on understanding the properties of the metals goblins use and the special enchantments they can be made to take. He's improving on it for NEWT, since he too is a dowser; he's making a frame with a set of divining rods attached and the rods will tell the flat plate what part of the world to show. He plans to work in the Aurors' office, tracking down criminals. He's good is Albert; and he was written off as a squib."

"Was he boosted by blood magic?" asked Zlatka.

"Not really no; he was a late developer and there were other factors – NOT being the favoured child for one which some of you will relate to. I'll introduce you" said Jade. "Dowsers are rare; if you can compare notes and learn from each other that has to be good. He uses it on tarot cards too" she added "He couldn't pick them to tell the future from a pack; but with divining rods he has a better than sixty per cent average of true prediction, though it isn't always the answer to the questions he was asking so he doesn't qualify as an insurance diviner. He went to check the examiner's health in the OWL exam and told him where to find a ring he had lost instead. Quirky skill; one I have respect for. Unlike peering into a crystal and making up any old mumbo jumbo."

"What do we do with my blood?" asked Zhanargul.

"We write a finding charm around you on the floor, slit a part of your body you don't mind having a scar on, and take twenty three drops of blood" said Jade.

"Why twenty three?" asked Takeo "The number was not mentioned in the book."

"That's because some rather original research has been done since" said Jade "By my genius kid sister as it happens; and checked over by others. This is partly tied in to knowledge from muggle science; muggles have discovered that our heritance is passed on in….. let us say for your ease of comprehension twenty three packets. This is why we can interbreed with goblins and elves who have the same number of packets of heritance. Horses and donkeys have a number that relate to each other but are not the same and so can produce a – usually – sterile hybrid in a mule. It's important to know for higher transfigurational skills and helps no end with human transfiguration. We take a drop of blood to represent every part of her heritance which muggles would find bad science, but then science and magic may interrelate but do not always march well together. One reason it works is because of the assimilative correlation that focuses our will because we believe it will work. Anyway, this blood goes into a vial on a chain of vanadium gold alloy. Vanadium has a weight of twenty three er particles to every smallest piece that is possible to still be called vanadium. Gold is traditionally good. Zlatka swings it over the globe, concentrating on finding those of the blood of Zhanargul and we should get her parents and her uncle showing up on a projected map. We eliminate the parents from the search and home in on the uncle with greater detail. Zhanni and I have spent time this evening adding details to the map of what her country is like. Albert only was able to fill in what he knew. If we all add to it he'll be well pleased and will be able then to copy it so we can have a school one."

"Sounds a good deal to me" said Jaromir.

oOoOo

Zhanargul stood inside a chalk circle and counted blood drops from the end of her finger; and stoppered the tiny bottle when she reached twenty three. She had to squeeze the last few. Zlatka took up the chain.

"My that IS powerful" she said "I already have direction just from the feel; lead me to the map!"

At Zlatka's touch the globe projected a map with two pulsing lights at one corner and one at the other.

"That's my parents' palace" Zhanargul pointed to the double light.

Zlatka concentrated and the map centred on the other light, homing in and drawing up a tiny aerial view of a deep valley with a fortification hardly big enough to be called a castle nestling on the lip of the valley. Jade was heard to mutter about it looking like the abbey in 'Hawk the Slayer' which was no information of use to anyone else.

"Good; we have a location" said Jade "Boys, what did you unearth about Abaris before we go in all wands blazing?"

"Not a lot" said Clovis, speaking for both of them; they had pooled information.

"Let's just say he isn't the sort of chap to accept a coalition power" said Lazlo "As I understand it, Tulegen was going to bring him back to er, undeath, to use as a servant; but the tables got turned when his knife did its stuff. Evidently it was attuned to sense a living body and was used to channel life force."

"Let's play – Master and Servant" sang Jade, who had heard Depeche Mode in the house of the Casimir Malfoys. "Sorry, muggle music reference. He ain't going to be so happy to be stuck in the middle of nowhere without life forces to sustain him, is he?"

"No but having discovered that there were two wizards Uncle Tulegen wasn't aware of is going to mean they both want to consolidate" said Lazlo "My guess is he left the inferii to mop up us and any reinforcements we brought in; because as I understand it a lot of dark wizards are most awfully impressed with themselves that they can recycle dead bodies and expect everyone else to run away. Though if you ask me any four or five competent witches or wizards could have mopped up that lot without getting hit with blood magic."

"Oh I agree; the hit was for if he was still there" said Jade. "Uncle Tully is moderately competent and he acknowledged a master; so Abaris the once and future skank might even be more powerful than me on my own. We have to assume it. We also have to wonder if he has horcruces; quick lesson for the sixth and anyone else who was asleep when we went through it in the ECC" she added, explaining horcruces.

"If he has we're a bit sunk" said Jaromir.

"Voldemort had seven; and we mopped him up once we found them all" said Jade "I'm guessing he does NOT; that he has found a way of making his own shell into its own horcrux-like item, preserving it to a certain extent – I gather he had a solidity?" she asked Clovis. He nodded.

"He looked a little the worse for wear; kind of shrivelled and mummified but essentially human" he said.

"A lich then more than a wight" said Jade "Technically a wight is a kind of angry ghost. So probably no horcruces but a very nasty knife. We may need an artefact to destroy it; still, a chant should work. And first catch your knife as they say. Well they would if they were after knives not fish. Sorry" she added.

"You talk the most awful rubbish at times Jade" said Lazlo. "Even more than me."

"I need to let my mind freewheel; sometimes it throws up the best ideas that way; Wulf will tell you" she added leaning back against Wulf who smiled tenderly and nodded.

"Her lunacies often have purpose" he said "We have little information save that Abaris is going to want people to drain soon; but that also he is going to want to find out from Uncle Tulegen just exactly how long he has been er, indisposed and what exactly has been happening in the last couple of millennia or so; he is no fool I think and is not about to act without data to work with. It's a lot of history lesson."

"Right; so we need to interrupt them at it while we know where they are" said Jade "No finesse; kill Abaris. Er, again. And it would be nice to capture Tulegen and drag him in chains before Zhanargul's father; we have two good and true witnesses who saw him deliberately engage in an act that led to the deaths of a number of muggles; and he has allied with the killer. That IS enough isn't it Zhanni?"

"I would think so" said Zhanargul "And you can witness that he sent the wild hunt also."

"So I can" said Jade. "All right people; link hands, we're going in."

oOoOo

The group arrived on the roof of the fortress; there were no guards. A flock of rooks were disturbed from their slumbers and fluttered briefly up cawing disapproval.

Jade and Zhanargul led the way; and the blooded focused on Zhanargul. She was to arrest her uncle and startle him with what she could do against him. Jade had every confidence that she could hold the lich by herself; if she could not, she would call on the rest in England and Austria. There was some matter of pride; but most of it was, as usual for Jade, academic curiosity.

They came to a main chamber; and burst in.

It was something of an anticlimax to see a wizard of similar appearance to Zhanargul slumped barely conscious on the floor, a house elf weeping over the body of another elf.

"Elf, my apologies for disturbing your grief, but has the other one, Abaris the Lich, left this place?" asked Jade gently.

The elf lifted a tearstained face.

"Yes Mistress" she said.

"If you belong to my uncle you must also do my bidding" said Zhanargul "We will bury your man later; but first you must go to England. What should she do in England Jade?" she asked.

"She should go to Malfoy Manor and ask Lucius to dig out all his ancient texts to find out what was around in the time of Pythagoras that's still standing" said Jade.

"What she said" said Zhanargul. The elf bowed and disappeared with a click of the fingers.

"Put binding spells on him" said Jade. Zhanargul complied. Tulegen moaned.

Jade laid a hand to his head and gave him enough power to come fully to consciousness. He screamed.

"A little early to terrorise him isn't it?" asked Jaromir.

"Haven't done a thing yet" said Jade laconically "Tulegen, stop screaming and look at me; tell me what Abaris is up to and I shan't have to hurt you by taking it forcibly from your mind."

"That's what he did" moaned the broken wizard "Took all my knowledge; it hurt, oh how it HURT!" he moaned, rocking back and forth "Said that telling him was too slow. Made me call for my elves; he needed power to go somewhere. Then he apparated. Cost me an elf; bastard, how was I to know he had the means to come back for himself? The text only said he would rise again with aid from the living!"

"Well!" said Jade "Lazlo, Clovis, Tildi, take this creep to Zhanargul's parents; she'll give you a visualisation. The rest of you go through this place and – here, take the cushion covers as bags – fill them with every book you find. Use the sleeves of your robes to pick them up do NOT place bare flesh to any of them. Just in case" she added.

"You know, I don't think any of us at Durmstrang really have any idea about real dark arts" said Jaromir.

"You don't; that's why you leave it to the experts" said Jade "Like the English. And especially my family who have forgotten more about the dark arts than most people ever learn. The dark arts are actually rather nasty; and not the simple and childish toys you get to play with at school. Even Voldemort never did more than scratch the surface and he was a moderately competent dark wizard" she grinned "And he was enough to have the ministry shitting bricks; you better hope I never take to dark wizardry."

"I rather think I do wish that" said Jaromir. "What when we have all books?"

"Back to Durmstrang" said Jade "Once the elf has returned."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

The elf returned with Lucius.

"WHAT are you up to now?" he asked Jade.

"Hunting down a lich" said Jade; and told him in a few concise sentences what had been happening. Lucius nodded. "Now I know why I'm looking for what I'm looking for I might make a more fruitful search" he said.

"I just wanted to break the self punishment compulsion on this elf" said Zhanargul "And now we bury her mate; what is his name; and what is yours?"

"He was called Kozzi; I am Gazzi" said the elf.

"Well Gazzi, let us lay him to rest" said Zhanargul.

"A HUMAN caring? Gazzi has never heard of such a thing!" said Gazzi.

"I care; I care because we had to find out where to come and so did not get here in time to save him" said Zhanargul. "You may come back to school with me; your master has tried to kill his own blood – me – so he forfeits the right to blood tied elves. It is the law."

"That's a new one on me" said Jade as Zhanargul went off to bury her elf's mate. "Lucius?"

"It may be eastern European law" said Lucius "Not one I know either. Could have been an interesting test case with the old Bella trying to kill Sirius so far as Kreacher was concerned. I'll ask Kreacher; he knows all sorts of obscure things."

"But not until you've found me all that was around at the time" said Jade "I'm thinking the pyramids, some Greek places, like Golden Mycenae and Tiryns and Troy; that ruined Hittite city and sundry Mesopotamian places. Only he's going to want people. So he's going to want population centres and one thinks immediately of Egypt and Greece for the tourists but there might be others that would attract a Scythian more."

"I'll let you know what I turn up" said Lucius.

"And I will keep an eye on muggle news reports for people dead of exsanguination following a knife wound" said Wulf grimly "THAT will be a way to track him."

"Brilliant" said Jade "I have a VERY clever husband."

"Purr on your own time Jade Wolf" said Zlatko rudely. She poked him.

They had all the books; and as Lucius returned to Malfoy Manor they returned to Durmstrang. Gazzi was less doleful in having her mistress care; and to actually dig a hole for Kozzi with her own hands with a summoned spade.

"And now to bed" said Jade "I don't want you too overtired to function. I'll put these books in a safe place to examine at leisure. And I'm tired if the rest of you aren't."

They were; and more than one wondered how the English managed to keep up this level of activity fighting Voldemort year after year as well as studying; and were even more impressed than before.

And Takeo was glad for the fist time that his ascetic upbringing actually gave him an advantage and wondered wistfully if Jade had had almost as ascetic an upbringing in a way with yet love in her life and the knowledge that her success mattered to people for more than just avoiding shame.

oOoOo

The younger ones clamoured to know what had happened when they arose for the ECC; and Jade filled them in. Clovis and Lazlo had returned too; Tildi had gone back to her son in England for the time being. She could be there for Clovis speaking her name, after all.

"Isultan Nurtazin, Zhanargul's father, is petitioning the German ministry to have his brother Tulegen held in Nurmengard" said Lazlo. "Technically he should be held in the Russian prison but Prince Isultan is concerned that he might be rescued - read, corrupt guards help him to escape – for a share in a Russian sphere principality. No German is going to care about what they see as a potty little place they can't find on a map; sorry Zhanni."

"Oh don't be; it means we got very little trouble from Odessa" said Zhanargul. "If nobody knows where you are you don't get them hassling you. Only some Russians do have a vague idea where we are."

"I don't understand; why don't they have their own prison?" asked Sofie.

"Geopolitical lesson here" said Jade. "The divisions of the wizarding world and those of the muggle world are actually subtly different; and the way they work. For one thing there is an international body in the wizarding world that has some teeth; in that it manages to enforce the laws of secrecy even if it otherwise is about as much use as the muggle United Nations; which is to say all squeak and no trousers. The divisions of what wizards think of as nations are basically the old grand duchies and principalities and are divided on geographical lines without any artificially imposed boundaries, which makes even more difference some place like Africa….. India is a special case because the British ruled it so long there are some British traditions left over, sorry, getting back to Europe. In the Wizarding world in Europe there are four main political divisions; the French sphere, the German sphere, the Scandinavian sphere and the Russian sphere. There are areas of overlap; France and Germany both claim influence in Switzerland and Alsace; but Switzerland, as in the muggle world, has managed to stay largely neutral because it houses all the banking houses. Which upsets a lot of Germans because they hate the idea of rich goblins; but that's by the by. Actually it isn't because treatment of goblins does vary from region to region. Poland – Clovis's country – is pretty much a protectorate of Germany though Russia has designs on it. It used to be a grand duchy of Russia, and that was in the wizarding world too. Supporting Gellert Grindelwald brought Poland firmly into Germany's sphere. You've done all that in history. Poland is bigger in the muggle world however because in the muggle world a lot of north eastern Germany is in Poland; because the boundaries got moved. Hungary, Austria and the Bohemian countries are in the sphere of Germany; as is Romania. Ukraine and Bulgaria are arguably Russian but fighting for more independence. The Balkans generally and Italy tend to come under the French sphere but with a lot of independence and nobody wants Greece or Cyprus. Nobody really wants the Stans either but the Russians count them as theirs and though they largely ignore them they'd get stroppy if they tried to break away. Culturally they have more in common with the middle east – like having Genii raising as a tradition. No I'm not going to get sidetracked on the types of Genii and how that relates to anything. I wonder which level he CAN raise?" she mused.

"It's in the will power isn't it? Mind over matter?" said Zlatko.

"Yeah, the fey don't mind and you don't matter" quipped Jade "I am NOT getting sidetracked! Anyway, the countries as we call them of courtesy have their own ministries but in general terms if they fall into a sphere of influence, when the main country says jump, they hit the ground running. The decree in the German Ministry about wand carrying for educated or scholar goblins is law now in all the countries in the sphere of Germany. Not however Russia and its satellites; and we may need to kick some of the German protectorates to get them to recognise it. Scandinavia is a law unto itself but generally speaking it is a more liberal society and as I understand are bringing in the interim law and are considering coming into line with England. As is Switzerland. The Netherlands is a peculiar case; traditionally the war zone of everyone else. Belgium is claimed by France, but some Belgians prefer the Durmstrang way; the Dutch are the same, some preferring the French laid back way, others liking the Germanic tradition. I should like to see a good school to rival the other great schools set up in Scandinavia; Bertel Elstrup is looking into that. Some of you younger ones from Scandinavia and Holland may end up teaching there some day. And I suspect that a lot of Norwegians will still come to Durmstrang for its supremacist policies that the head is not about to abandon utterly. But who goes to whom for what aid can cause repercussions and if I had been your dad. Zhanargul. I'd have gone right outside the whole area and asked to put him in Azkaban."

"I don't suppose he thought the English would agree" said Zhanargul. "Our society is virtually tribal in some respects; which is why we have relatively little interest taken in us. We have a more monolithic society because Greater Kazakhstan was united under Nursultan the third a couple of hundred years ago, arguing that with the statute of secrets we had need to be more cohesive. Technically Uzbekistan is a protectorate of ours and Moxsuda in the first a countryman of mine; though she might dispute it. Some Uzbeki do. She seemed happy enough to travel with me though and called me a princess of her country. I did not like her; she fags for Saula because we have a duty of care for her but I did not entirely trust her if my uncle was like to try to buy her. I do not have to worry about that now. She must feel herself a part of greater Kazakhstan though or she would go to a middle eastern school. It was the decree of Nursultan the third that the aristocracy and the cleverest of the poor wizards and witches should go to European schools to leave behind barbarism and return to the greatness of the early wizarding communities that were part of the Bacrian Empire. It's a bit of a vain hope but at least we don't have to be a bunch of tent dwelling goat eating spirit-fearing half baked magicians like the Turkmeni."

"How I love your unprejudiced and charitable summations" grinned Jade. "I quite see the point however. And hard to be civilised when the muggles around you from whom you must hide are not very."

"It is" said Saula speaking up for the first time "We tend to have mountain communities dug back into the rock. It works fairly well."

"They have beautiful hidden valleys with waterfalls and birds of bright plumage singing like stories out of Arabian Nights" said Lazlo. "I should like to visit just to see more, Zhanargul."

"I think that would be very pleasant" said Zhanargul with a faint blush as she cast an admiring glance at the Hungarian youth. Jade grinned to herself. That could work out very well indeed!

As could influence ultimately over both German and Russian spheres of influence through Durmstrang.

oOoOo

Jade made a full report to Agata.

"If there isn't one thing there's another!" said Agata. "Still I don't suppose there was anything more to have been done; I thought a wicked uncle was bad enough and I have to say that having him neutralised is a comfort; but a LICH? It's a pity you lost him but I suppose if you hadn't had a couple of friends on it the first we might have known is him and an army of inferii turning up at the castle. Does he have any plans for Zhanargul?"

"Not as far as I know; I think his plans of conquest are a little grander" said Jade. "More along the lines of Ghengiz Khan. He MUST have life essence though; and although one deplores the fact that muggles are going to get killed we might be able to track him by murders. Lucius is looking for places he would have known in HIS time that are still extant kinda."

"Well Lucius is efficient. And in the meantime life goes on; I take it that's the attitude you're happy to take?"

Jade shrugged.

"It's the attitude we took over Voldemort" she said "Time, tide, exams and quidditch matches stop for no man; or lich. Or whatever Voldemort was. Snake-oil man? That'll do. Snake oil, Agata, is a muggle term of derision for potions brewed by charlatans that don't actually do anything; so as he was half snake venom I pick my words with care."

"As always" said Agata "And there's a match against the Hamburg Hippogriffs. Will it be safe to let Zhanargul play?"

"Crumbs yes; the pitch is inside the fey exclusion zone and if any inferii come last I heard they can't fly" said Jade. "And we should notice in plenty of time; even first years don't smell that bad."

"That was unwontedly unkind even for you" chuckled Agata. "Well I leave it in your hands; keep me up to date on anything that happens."

oOoOo

Lucius arrived later that day.

"All right; we have large portions of Egypt; Athens and actually large portions of Greece; which he would know quite a lot about though it's doubtful if Nurtazin did; and we still have cities extant at Byzantium, or rather Istanbul; Samarkand; and some of the settlements and towns on the trade route that became the Silk Road like Leninabad and Kokand were probably around in his day. I'd lay odds on him going places first that are known landmarks in the cultural knowledge of Nurtazin that he's know either from description or first hand experience like the pyramids at Ghiza or the Acropolis in Athens. And assuming that he uses some kind of transfiguration or disillusionment and isn't walking around looking undead he is NOT going to stand out; if he acts unfamiliarly he'll be put down as one more stupid tourist. And unless he attacks wealthy tourists I'm afraid he is going to disappear unless his appetite is horrendous. Who reports dead prostitutes in the less savoury parts of Egyptian or Hellenic tourist cities?" he said.

"You are a pessimist Lucius" said Jade "And I'm afraid you're also probably right. So we have to wait until he makes some move towards consolidating a power base? I hate to be reactive."

"If we keep an eye out on muggle news in case he is greedy – or sloppy, as he might well be, not realising that we can keep tabs on muggle activity – and on news of say, a new teacher of the arts in these places we might pick up something. I have a few business interests in Istanbul who might be able to keep their ears to the ground for me; though they ARE mostly muggles."

"Gun running, Lucius?"

"Silk" said Lucius. "And probably a bit of gun running on the side for some of my less scrupulous contacts. Don't knock it; where do you think the last lot of AK's came from?"

"Fair point" Jade admitted. "Well I hope at least Nurtazin will be safe in Nurmengard; though I might just pop up there and get a fey-proof exclusion zone around it. We don't want him calling up a great form spirit to spirit him out, literally, through feyspace."

"Yes; you can't be too paranoid over things like that" said Lucius "I'd think about it now I know more about the fey. Have I been any use?"

"Tremendously; thanks" said Jade, kissing him on the cheek. "I suppose you wouldn't like to go through Nurtazin's book collection for me would you? I'm itching to do it myself but I am alive to my faults; if I once engaged with such a collection I'd forget to eat and sleep let alone teach."

Lucius laughed.

"A Snape characteristic" he said "And Malfoys aren't immune to it either. Nobody knows cursed and grubby literature like me though, I think; I'll be glad to do it. I'll give you potted précis of any that seem interesting and bring in anything I think you should see."

"Ta" said Jade.

Now she could taste the frustration of those who fought Voldemort in the first wizarding war; when finding him and his followers had been like trying to grasp the wind as it passed. And the waiting in the second war as they tracked down and destroyed the horcruces. Jade might have lived through that time; but as a child it was in the total trust that mum and dad and Professor Dumbledore and Harry and the other grownups would sort it out; it did not touch her as nearly. Ah well, it would be a good exercise in patience; and her Catholic rearing made her kneel to pray for the souls of the unfortunates that Abaris would slay before they could catch up with him.

oOoOo

The day of the match was a glorious autumnal day, and the quality of the light touched everything with gold. Though the greater number of the trees in the big forest were evergreens still the fringes of it were gilded by the autumn sun and the few deciduous trees at its edge wore gay golden and russet cloaks as a last defiant act of warm coloured display before winter's blast robbed them of their bright apparel to leave them in cold nudity. The new first team would probably have little time for the beauty, being too excited to play against the big men and statuesque women of the professional team.

The Hamburg Hippogriff's captain, who could have understudied for a valkyrie on steroids, shook hands heartily with Frida Rundqvist.

"Frau Rundqvist! Looking forward to the game! Tell me, with what team did your demon seeker finally sign? We made a bid but she turned us down!" she sounded slightly petulant.

"Oh I'm afraid Frau Von Luytens – as she now is – considers herself too academic to want to play professionally" said Frida "Can you believe she actually considers Arithmancy more fun then playing quidditch? She's teaching Dark Arts here for a year as a stopgap; apparently she plans to teach Arithmancy when she has set up her own school with her husband. A sad loss to quidditch!"

"Truly!" said the Hamburg captain. "I see she comes to cheer the team on, however" she added, catching sight of Jade's diminutive fugure.

"Yes; and she has been kind enough to help me out with coaching our new seeker" said Frida "Who is, I fear, another academic."

"Tell me, did she achieve all –what was it SEVEN ZH's?" asked the captain curiously.

"Oh yes; all at 'O' grade" said Frida with a tone somewhere between awe and horror that anyone should be so academic. "Our current seeker is but in the fifth; and he is taking eleven ZPs AND an English equivalent level qualification too and he is threatening to take six ZH's!"

"It hardly seems fair, does it, that these academics should be also the ones with talent?" sighed the visiting captain.

oOoOo

The Hamburg Hippogriffs were good. For all the best efforts of the young team they were easily and rapidly outscored; and when Zlatko saw a chance to take the snitch it really was only for pride's sake.

He entirely confused the opponents' seeker by hammering at top speed right past the snitch and braking to a full stop with a sideways turn and slide to be right where the snitch was headed so it fluttered right into his waiting hands.

"Donner und Blitzen, how did you pull THAT stunt?" asked the Hamburg seeker.

"Arithmancy" said Zlatko unanswerably.

Frida turned a horrified gaze on Jade.

"He jests, surely?" she asked.

"Not at all; it's a move I suggested to him" said Jade calmly. "At top speed the Caspianov-4 breaks in a distance no less than thirty feet under normal circumstances. Momentum is conserved, so something has to be done to dissipate the energy in a shorter distance. Some energy is used slewing rapidly sideways, but if instead of turning one moves forward sideways, as it were, drag can reduce the speed and thus the breaking distance by almost six hundred per cent. Thus he can come to a full stop in about five feet; quod erat demonstrandum. I can do you the calculations of it if you like" she added.

"No thank you" said Frida hastily who had no doubt that Jade could indeed prove it on paper; and feared that Zlatko could probably do it almost as well.

As the Hamburg captain had come over and had caught the end of Jade's explanation as well Frida thought that the visitor would also scarcely welcome an academic exercise on the quidditch pitch! Certainly the tall golden woman was looking as horrified as Frida felt!

oOoOo

Jade thought it fascinating the choices people made of the brooms they used.

The Hamburg team all had Schnellstflugers; indeed they had pre-production models of the promised Schnellstfluger 07, and Jade had to admit it was an improvement on the previous models, being comparable to the Firebolt and living up to its name of 'fastest flyer'. Not, however, she thought, quite a match for the Millenium Firebolt that she still considered the best broom in the world. The Firebolt 200 might be faster at its top speed, fine for racing; but for quidditch high speed must be balanced by manoeuvrability and to Jade's mind the Firebolt 200 had sacrificed the turn-on-a-sickle abilities of the Millie and the original Firebolt. It was a fault of the Caspianov-4 that it lacked acceleration and rapid braking as well as the manoeuvrability of the Firebolt; and Jade determined to loan Zlatko her broom for future matches.

Jaromir, who had been bought by his parents the inferior Zweigengeist*, had borrowed Takeo's broom. The Tombokuro was the better of the two main Japanese makes, comparable in many ways to the Firebolt except that the balance was a little dodgy; but Jaromir reckoned that a degree of instability was almost an advantage to a keeper so long as he knew the broom well enough to make its little foibles work for him. Jade wondered if the instability lay in the exuberance of growth of the black bamboo that formed the handle; not so fast growing as some bamboos it was still a rapid growing plant in comparison to many woods, with the springiness and resilience of its kind. Eastern brooms did favour bamboo over other woods. Its owner, Takeo was on the second team; but the philosophy of his uncle was to provide the best equipment possible for the boy chosen to represent his Ryokkan and to avoid a comfortable ride like the Katsukaminari, that might have resembled its name of 'victory thunder' in its heyday but, being superseded, retained good sales for being a really pleasant broom to ride if no longer the fastest and most manoeuvrable. The shaft of this broom was Japanese sycamore. Many of the rest of the Durmstrang team had opted for the Boistrye Drakon; less efficient at acceleration and braking than the Firebolt series but living up to being a 'fast dragon' with top speeds over 170mph and the ability to turn fast and to manoeuvre well in climbing and diving modes as well as left and right; such that it could pull a tighter Immelman turn than even the Millie. Which was wasted on those people who had no idea how to do it. Jade had every intention of buying this model for her top players at her school. There were, as Zlatko had ably demonstrated, ways around slow braking; and good tactics and sharp eyes could overcome slow acceleration. Jade rated turn speed above acceleration, since on a quidditch pitch the Firebolt series came close to being over engineered for anyone but the seeker.

And of course world class players.

Zhanargul had enjoyed the match, although the school had lost by some six hundred and eighty points to three hundred and forty; and Jade was glad to see her animated rather than slightly haunted and concerned as the machinations of her uncle

had left her over the last few days. Keeping Zhanargul happy and able to enjoy being a schoolgirl was as important, Jade thought, as had been her mother's idea of keeping Harry Potter happy and not worrying too much.

"Positive waves, Moriarty; it's a beautiful bridge, it'll be there" muttered Jade to herself in an approximate quote from 'Kelly's Heroes'. It was excellent timing for a game; now Zhanargul would have more buoyancy to deal with anything else that might happen' and frankly that was not likely to be a lot for now. Jade was NOT sanguine about running to earth a wily lich on the loose because even if he underestimated her ability to track happenings in the muggle world through not understanding electronic communication – something Nurtazin probably did not even know existed either, in common with most of the wizarding world – the fellow would not have become powerful in the first place by being a total fool. Abaris was potentially more dangerous than Voldemort because he had known how to make allies and exchange favours where he could not dominate. And he felt Nurtazin too weak to do anything but dominate. It would be interesting to know the extent of Nurtazin's ability; but from what Zhanargul had said, Jade strongly suspected he relied heavily on the abilities of those he summoned and had one main skill of conjuration and enough ability to protect himself. A lot of the texts Jade had seen from his stronghold, for she had glanced at the titles, were concerned with ancient runes and protective glyphs. Which she was aching to read! And some she would need to learn Arabic to understand; for though familiar in passing with some of the script Jade neither spoke nor read Arabic. Yet. The Cyrillic texts would at least pose her no problems; and Jade gave Nurtazin more respect as a conjuror for being prepared to use appropriate runic bases for his summoning. Even so it was still sloppy to rely on the powers of the great form spirits he conjured rather than making himself knowledgeable too. If Abaris had taught Pythagoras – who had invented much numerology as well as Arithmantic principles used by muggles and wizards alike – he was probably rather hard.

Unlike Voldemort he would probably not be neglecting Arithmancy; even if perhaps not so skilled in it as Pythagoras himself. And he must have been clever enough to hide any megalomania from that Greek philosopher who was reckoned to be virtuous and ascetic and to hate tyranny. And who – if indeed he HAD learned magic from Abaris – had probably been moved by a spirit of learning everything about everything. And what was not known as such to muggles, though they knew that Pythagoras was learned in herb lore and healing, was that he was a celebrated potioneer of the wizarding world though not so celebrated as he might be since he was muggle born. And those who used his Arithmantic and Astronomic principles daily in such places as Durmstrang chose to forget that fact. That Pythagoras had put forward a model of the solar system with the sun at its centre meant that wizarding astronomy had been advanced beyond muggles whose religious intolerances had chosen to ignore and pooh-pooh the model until Nikolas Copernik, known as Copernicus, had also come to the same conclusion. And he was threatened with excommunication at that. He was a muggle's muggle; a scientist to the last.

But with having learned as much from Pythagoras as the Greek had learned from him, Abaris was a very dangerous character indeed and quite capable of learning how the muggle world worked. It was perhaps as well that the centres of learning known to him, the centre of the ancient world, was now scarcely comparable to the western European world in technological achievement and day-to-day use of things the western Europeans took for granted. And it might take a while for Abaris, already finding so much that was new, to adjust to the concept that the barbarian tribes were more now the centre of the European stage than Greece and its environs, or Egypt or Mesopotamia. And into Iraq of the modern era he might disappear and a few extra deaths a month utterly insignificant against the backdrop of mismanaged muggle interference.

Clovis and Lazlo were to alert the rest who had left school the summer before who were in the blood group; and they would take the duty of watching and listening whilst in the guise of being tourists to sites that were old and revered in the wizarding world as much as for muggles; and they would doubtless enjoy picking up some history first hand too. Traudl and Bertel especially were knowledgeable about ancient runes and would listen out for the theft or disturbance of ancient wizarding texts in case Abaris was doing any research. They were all warned to alert the others at any sign that could be the lich; he was too dangerous for any to tackle alone. And too dangerous to try to talk to. Had he been raised by Nurtazin, Jade would have given him the benefit of the doubts over his motives; but the use of the cursed dagger had taken away any sympathy possible for the man and gave some credence to the legend that Pythagoras had gained knowledge by visiting Hell – presumably in a metaphorical sense– that had disturbed him mightily. Perhaps his apprenticeship with Abaris would account for that, especially if Abaris used inferii such that the philosopher might have believed himself in the underworld.

oOoOo

Zhanargul seemed well able to use the match to put the worries over Abaris and her uncle to one side; Jade having explained that, unlike romances, tracking down the baddie did not usually happen in one six hundred page novel and if they had any news of Abaris before the ZP exams she, Jade, would be very surprised and concentrating on studying was more use than getting itchy about liches.

"I'm paid to be the one to do the worrying" said Jade laconically "And I have people out looking. I shan't leave you out of anything, any of you lot, so just ignore Abaris until he makes himself obvious. We'll pick him up as he builds a power base; but he may want to spend a couple of years even studying the changes to the world before he even starts doing so. After all, he's now essentially immortal. I certainly would NOT hurry myself."

"You mean we might have left school and miss out on tracking him down?" said Jochen Wiesel. Jade laughed.

"If you want to be my agents from time to time, keep in touch and I'll keep in touch with you" she said. "As I understand it you're doomed to – I mean, destined for the ministry; it's amazing how much information goes through such bodies that is never properly cross correlated with other information from disparate departments. Learn poke your nose into other departments for odd snippets and learn to cross correlate and you never know what might turn up!"

Jochen brightened. He had not been looking forward to working in the ministry but did not want to disappoint his parents either. The idea of seeing what he could find out from being nosy for Frau Von Luytens was actually a lot more appealing!

oOoOo

The day of the match was the last fine day; winter struck overnight with a snowstorm and in the morning Jade looked from her window to see all the leaves stripped from the deciduous trees leaving them stark against the thin covering of snow, which had blown away in the wild wind almost as soon as it had lain.

There was enough warmth in the sun when it emerged that the snow was mostly gone by nightfall; but the clear day brought frost and each morning now the sheen of rime lay on every blade of grass and turned fallen leaves to filigree edged jewels. The ECC would not be able to run in the mornings for much longer, though Jade had brought in cross county skis for them to get out on the fine days in winter. And otherwise they must practice martial arts and dance folk dances in the dungeon. And that would be a revelation to Takeo too; not the martial arts, at which he was as skilled as Jade; but the idea of dancing to keep fit. He had already wondered that endurance exercises should be actually enjoyable, that the sense of comradeship made so much difference. And he watched how the more experienced helped the newer members to overcome difficulties rather than shouting at them to keep up and deriding their weakness as he was used to; and how they grew the more in strength for being aided rather than becoming weak for accepting help as he had been told would happen. And when his anger flared anew that his uncle had told him lies and he seemed like to lash out at the first person to cross his path, Jade took him aside for a bout of physical fighting until he collapsed exhausted sobbing that he had been lied to; and Jade put her arms around him as though he were a little boy and said dryly that if his uncle had been reared thus and had NOT seen any other way, he probably believed the untruths he promulgated; as Takeo would have done. And she promised to push him so he could prove physical and academic superiority. It would not hurt her too to have a sparring partner who was both skilled and did not hold back; Wulf respected her not to pull any punches when they sparred but he had not been learning martial arts most of his life as Jade had, since Abraxus Malfoy had first brought Kung Fu and martial Tai Chi to the Muggle Studies Hobby Group. She might too with Takeo practise the duel as a contact sport, the way they did it in England; he would enjoy that and learn from it.

And he too had much to offer in his knowledge of eastern traditions, knowledge that was not readily taught to westerners about Fox Spirits and Badger Spirits, Japan's own shapeshifters; and about the Japanese vampire that by night separates the head and intestines from the body to fly through the air to seek living blood.

Jade started learning Japanese from Takeo; including the three scripts. The Kanji form was, after all, virtually identical to Chinese script and if she could read the ideograms she could also read the ancient Chinese texts that interested her. And once she had the basics she could use magic to transfer more; and then add to her knowledge base using magical transfer from those different experts who used different sets of ideograms, since no Chinese or Japanese was ever expected to know all of them. It seemed inefficient to Jade, that one might be functionally literate and still not even have a clue how to pronounce all of a word one did not know, to puzzle out its meaning; in a script made up of a relatively few letters one could say a word and at least determine if it had a Latin, Greek or Saxon base and make an educated guess thereby of the meaning!

But it was foolish to moan; this was a chance at yet more knowledge!

* spirit of the twigs

black dragonfly; the dragonfly is known in Japan as the 'victory insect'


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

The Halloween half term arrived and Jade received an invitation from Eduard Von Frettchen to his wedding which was to take place at Yule. Agata had one too. And young Ignaz Von Frettchen had received an owl from home that put him in a bad temper to the extent that he cheeked Jade in class after the long weekend holiday when she called him to book for inattention and said that she need not put on such airs since last year she had only been a schoolgirl.

"And this year I am a professor" said Jade "And you aren't so good a student, Herr Von Frettchen that I should be sorry to exclude you from my class and ban you from taking the exam. You are a rude, lazy little boy and how you come to bear so old and noble a name as Von Frettchen is beyond me unless you happen to be a changeling left by some unfortunate cow who was impregnated by a troll which combination of heritance is all I can find to explain both your bovine lack of wit and vitality and your constantly bad manners. This is not the first time I have had to reprove you; and because I have relieved my feelings by being rude back I shall not demand an apology but I shall expect you to sit a detention writing one hundred times 'manners maketh the man'. You may report to the detention room tonight. And do not even consider failing to turn up; you would NOT enjoy the consequences."

Young Von Frettchen simmered; but he believed her that he would not enjoy the fruits of defiance. He might have tried taunting her that she was not long out of the schoolroom but everyone had heard stories more or less garbled about what had happened to Hedda Schrempf.

oOoOo

Madam Bacsó herself reminded the fifth that they would be expected to attend the Yule Ball; and Zlatko grinned at his twin and said,

"Oh well, we don't have to bother taking anyone else; we have each other."

"I'm not sure that's quite proper, a brother and sister going as PARTNERS" said Agata.

"Well, Madam Bacsó, you know what they say; the family that lays together stays together. And vice is nice, but incest is best" said Zlatko.

Agata was shocked; but Zlatka poked her twin.

"Pay no attention to Zlatko, Madam Bacsó he's playing the fool for effect – as usual" she said.

Zlatko laughed.

"Frankly Madam Bacsó I'm not interested in looking for romance yet; so dancing with my sister does me as well as dancing with any other idiot who treads on my toes and breathes heavily in my face whilst counting their steps" he said. "I shan't say I'm sorry to shock you because I'm afraid I enjoyed the look on your face until you realised I was teasing. But as YOU know what you're doing on the dance floor, perhaps you'll save a dance or two for me?" he bowed and kissed his fingers to her.

"You are a very bad boy!" said Agata "And you shall learn a sonnet of your choice on the subject of love to recite to me by Friday."

He bowed.

"By your command ma'am it is my pleasure to recite love poetry to you" he said.

Agata left hurriedly. Zlatko in one of those moods was really too much for anyone's equanimity!

oOoOo

Ignaz Von Fretchen asked Desolina Uccello, the most beautiful girl in the school, to go to the ball with him. The Italian girl was pure blooded as well as beautiful, with creamy skin, pansy brown eyes and a cascade of auburn hair. Ignaz recalled to Desolina the manner of Heinrich Nachtigall, for whom she used to fag until Jade helped her escape, sending her firmly to fag for Traudl Mondshein; and Heinrich Nachtigall had started touching Desolina up in a scary way. Consequently she cried

"NO!" in a tone of horror and fell back from him physically.

Ignaz narrowed his eyes.

"Other than the fool Asimov there is no other pure bred boy in our class" he said "Who then would you be able to consider as a partner?"

Desolina pulled herself together somewhat, knowing that she would be backed by the Asimov twins and Gisela Schutzmann as members of the ECC and said,

"I would rather go to the ball with a half goblin half troll than with you, Von Frettchen, because your manners smell."

"Well done" applauded Zlatka. "If you get that wand out Von Frettchen I'll show you how I can cast wordlessly and wandlessly like the English."

Ignaz turned away.

"If you are so undiscriminating Uccello I would not want to dance with you anyway" he said.

"Sour grapes!" laughed Gisela "Have fun finding a pure blood partner Ferret; I have only ten generations, and the only other pure blood in our year is Zlatka. And in the year above you've made enough comment about dirty uncivilised princesses of who knows where for Zhanargul to want you anywhere near her; I suppose you could try an upper sixth; Calvina Leckkessel might dance with you."

"Darleeng!" cried Zlatko – who really WAS in one of those moods – "I weel abandon ma incestuous relationsheep for ze joy of your arms around my waist, and an 'omosexual relationsheep wiz you; because you've always been a pain in the arse".

Ignaz retired in high dudgeon.

oOoOo

Jade had persuaded Agata to hire a more modern group to play for the Yule Ball rather than having barely adequate orchestral players; and they were to dance to the music of Finnish group Nachthexe,

and Jade looked forward to being up close to hear the opera trained voice of their lead singer Tiina. The group had picked a German name and sang mostly in German, to appeal to a wider market; since many European wizards and witches had German as a second language because of the Durmstrang tradition.

Zlatko grumbled – as a matter of principle – that he would have preferred the German group Kunstwerke.

"Talk sense" said Jade "How could you dance to numbers like 'We are the Inferii'? and their other numbers aren't any better in that respect. Now if the head had got in Katti Krächzen I could understand your reservations."

Zlatko grinned; he had heard the story that the ZP class of the previous year had debated whether Katti Krätzen should be counted as a dark creature for wailing like a banshee with an excess of vibrato.

It was expensive to hire such a group; but then the fees of Durmstrang were high and the pupils were wealthy. And the Finnish group was ready to accept because it increased their exposure and made them known to potentially very well connected patrons.

oOoOo

Naturally the silliness over the ball went on; and Adelard Löenzahn called Ignaz Von Frettchen out to duel because he had forgotten that Adelard was also pure blooded and entitled to dance with Desolina.

Desolina did not actually care. Adelard was seen as something of a catch, being well connected and wealthy as well as pure blooded and Desolina thought him a pompous bore.

While the duel was taking place – a thoroughly illegal duel since it was not cleared through a prefect – Desolina swept up to Takeo Namudzu and said,

"As you're a member of the ECC, if you haven't got a partner for the Ball yet I should hope you don't think it forward of me to ask someone who's got honour and isn't about to paw me or try to push me into what I don't want."

Takeo bowed beautifully.

"I should be honoured to take you to the Ball if you will come" he said.

"Thank you" said Desolina. "I really do NOT want a boyfriend; and Von Frettchen is the last I should choose."

"He is heir of the senior school governor is he not?" asked Takeo and went on as Desolina nodded "He is no ornament of his house; if I were the Duke I should have him quietly killed. He will be disastrous to the line; better that it should die out if Herzog Von Frettchen cannot get an heir."

"Oh, but perhaps he will remarry" said Desolina "I take 'Hochehexen'; it's a magazine about the highest in society and he has been seen with a new secretary that many speculate he is closer to than employer; she helped him infiltrate the Ministry incognito to find out who was flouting the rules, it said. She must be clever as well as handsome; and he's old enough to be more interested in her brains than that she's not conventionally pretty. Though being pretty has its down side" she added dolefully "Because boys act silly and some of them are scary."

"You will never have to fear that I shall act improperly" Takeo bowed. It was a loss of self control to behave badly to a woman; and that was to Takeo unforgivable.

oOoOo

Gisela was invited by Sigismundus de Brujin; and accepted. He was, as she said, mostly harmless. Jochen Weisel and Hilde Mundnimbus were to go together; and Stiv Molotov invited Zhanargul as a friend from the ECC. In the same spirit, though with brief hesitation, Jaromir invited Zhanargul's lady in waiting, Saula Kim; Saula was given to more of a disdainful air than her mistress and was inclined to put off most people from approaching her. Jaromir wondered if it were partly shyness and partly defensiveness over being at school on the charity of Zhanargul's father; he had been standoffish himself out of defensiveness, and Zhanargul and Saula were obviously close, so there was no intentional slight there nor ill treatment; and nor could Saula be truly unpleasant that Zhanargul clearly liked her.

Saula accepted rather stiffly; and Jarmomir made himself smile.

"We can talk Arithmancy rather than exchanging views on the music" he said "I have taken it upon myself to study on my own time to see if I cannot take the ZH."

Saula looked more animated than he had previously seen her.

"That would be more convivial" she said. "Frau Von Luytens helps you?"

"Yes; she has been very good" said Jaromir. His Sunday afternoon sessions had been taught mostly by Jade with some sessions by Katarina Nachtigall and he was enjoying the experience more than he had expected. Arithmancy with a point to it, and made moreover interesting and understandable was rather marvellous. And better for not being shared by the detention of the boy Ernst who seemed to be staying out of trouble.

All the dormitory were staying out of trouble; Alois and Pyotr because it was their nature; and the five because they were keeping a low profile until they had blood bonded with each other.

And if Attila Nagy wondered why his son was a little quiet, he had the sense to ask Jade about it and was uncertain whether to be relieved or apprehensive when she laughed and said that as she understood their deliberate air of virtue they were likely lulling people into a false sense of security whilst maturing their felonious little plans. He did not pick up the Gilbert and Sullivan reference. Jade knew perfectly well that they did not want to risk being in trouble before blooding; which was to be on the coming Sunday morning and they would doubtless sneak away after the run to be in plenty of time for their proper time. Staying for the post run meeting would cut their timing fine; and as Frühstück was later on Sunday sometimes the meeting ran on a bit longer than usual.

oOoOo

Others too had plans for the first weekend in November.

Ihor Rebet was staying in school for that weekend, having had a long weekend with his wife and Zhenga and he felt he really ought to stay at his post once in a while; and besides he wished to inventory the stores.

He got up early on Saturday; and made his way to the dungeon; where he was taken aback – and furious – to find Ignaz Von Frettchen with all the potioneer's specialist books lying about around him, and a cauldron on the fire which the boy stirred assiduously. Young Von Frettchen was an excellent potioneer, which tended to make Ihor less hard on him for his less blatant rudeness; but this was the outside of enough.

"BOY! What do you think you are up to?" he howled.

Ignaz looked up in terror. Whilst he had got away with sailing close to the wind the irascible Ukrainian scared him enough that he never dared be too rude; the idea of gutting horned toads or skinning salamanders loomed large in his mind. Though writing lines on the blackboard with chalk for Nefrita Von Strang, or Luytens, had not been a pleasant exercise either, standing the whole time and coughing from chalk dust.

"I – er – I didn't suppose you'd be down so early sir, I – er – I didn't want to disturb you to ask if I might try out my personal project" he said.

"Then you should have waited" said Ihor coldly. "What is this personal project and what makes your personal projects so very important that you find it acceptable to spoil expensive books by bending them back on themselves?" he retrieved a big book that had been thus mistreated from which the boy was working.

"Well it wouldn't stay open; it won't hurt it much and the school can always get another" said Ignaz.

This was a very bad move. Ihor Rebet came close enough to scream right in the boy's face.

"THIS BOOK IS MY PERSONAL PROPERTY, BOY, AND IT IS A RARE BOOK THAT I DOUBT THAT CAN BE REPLACED EVEN WHEN I WRITE TO YOUR FATHER TO DEMAND DAMAGES FROM HIM! AS TOO I WILL DEMAND RECOMPENSE FOR ANY INGREDIENTS YOU HAVE STOLEN FOR THIS PROJECT OF YOURS, YOU COMMON LITTLE THIEF!"

The commotion was enough to disturb the ECC, returning from their run to their dungeon; and Jade put her head around the door.

"Problems, Ihor?"

"This boy has been damaging my property in order to gratify some potioneering whim of his own; though I fail to see why he would need a long term contraceptive; he hasn't the equipment to get pregnant."

"He hasn't actually got the basic equipment to even bear forth an original idea" said Jade, peering at the book. "A long term contraceptive, eh? One wonders whether he is picking the potentially more dangerous and lazier method of making sure some girl he is surreptitiously poking remains without the inconvenience of pregnancy; or whether this, and his bad mood is in response to his uncle's impending nuptials. LOOK at me boy" she added crisply and as he unwilling turned defiant eyes on her she nodded. "Yes; he is angered that Ann is to marry his uncle and seeks to kill any baby before it forms, hoping to see her every holidays with the chance then of feeding her this long term contraceptive. Which can be a risky matter to the mother's health, the reason he has only found it in this very old work as it is not generally in use nowadays. Not that he cares; he'd probably like to see his uncle's bride haemorrhage and bleed to death. Ihor, this is beyond theft of school materials and dangerous disobedience; this is a case of deliberate intended murder; I believe I have German law correctly when I cite that attempts to disrupt the succession and prevent pregnancy counts as murder; introduced, as I recall, with the wicked intent of threatening wives with the rigor of the law if they objected to producing stillborn brats every few months and used contraception to give their bodies a chance to heal."

"THAT reason wouldn't surprise me; Germans are barbaric" growled Rebet. "I will NOT have the credit for training a potioneer of such a lack of ethics; I hereby ban him from my class and refuse him the ZP."

"I fancy that he might get banned more that that, Ihor" said Jade. "Herr Von Frettchen, go directly to the sick bay and report for quarantine; Herr Rebet will have to take this to the headmistress. Shall I clear up in here, Ihor?"

"Yes please, Nefrita" said Ihor "You know the way I file my books."

Jade nodded.

"I'll cast a _reparo_ on the book too; and if that isn't enough a chant should mend those pulled stitches" she said.

"You are good" said Ihor. "BOY, WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?"

Ignaz fled.

Ihor went to Agata; it was a most upsetting start to his day! And he would now never get the inventory done before the chanting class!

oOoOo

Agata unravelled the diatribe of the excitable Ukrainian and paled in shock. The law Jade had cited also covered anyone aiding and abetting – to stop others buying appropriate herbs – and could mean the school if Eduard Von Frettchen cared to so interpret it.

"I shall take it from here, Ihor; be so good as to secure a sample of the potion he was brewing. It is a shame you had to leave it" she said.

"Jade was clearing up for me" said Ihor; "And I think some of her runners were with her. I eschewed the run to inventory things."

"Hurry back and make sure that she has not got rid of it" said Agata.

Ihor nodded and did so; to find that Jade had decanted the liquid in the cauldron and had had Jaromir, Konstanty and Serafina – who now both came to the ECC – initial under her seal of the decanter that they had watched her decant and seal.

"They are over seventeen" said Jade. "We have also placed in a jar such ingredients as he got out but did not use all of; and are undertaking a full inventory."

"My dear girl! You are amazing!" said Ihor.

"I HATE inefficiency" said Jade.

oOoOo

Agata meanwhile contacted the duke by floo.

Von Frettchen was shocked and furious.

"I did not think he would stoop so low!" he cried "I would that I had done more to see to his upbringing!"

"How can you really interfere between a boy and his father?" said Agata dryly.

"True I suppose; but I shall interfere now to tell my clueless brother where his neglect of discipline has led!" said Von Frettchen furiously. "I suppose… what had you planned to do?"

"Expel him" said Agata "The law… we did NOT aid or abet as I wish to make clear; it was theft of items from the potions dungeon, not even given unwittingly. Do you think it appropriate to expel him for attempted murder?"

"I'd forgotten that law; made for evil purposes" growled the duke "No; not that I wish to have him avoid shame, but in a way, to be expelled as a petty thief is a more shaming thing to be than a grandly evil would be murderer. How could he?"

"He likes being your heir" said Agata dryly. "And when you have at last found happiness to try to snatch it away… Ihor tells me that the long term effects of this potion can also kill the mother."

Von Frettchen paled.

"And he not caring I suppose….. I will come, Agata; as well as your expulsion I have a mind to enact my own punishment with a good flogging. He has never had a hand of discipline laid on him in his life; for this it is about time he did. After all, he has no affection for me or he would not try to make me miserable thus; so if he takes a small step to hatred I should not really care. I will also disown him and order my elves that he is no blood of mine, that he is not to be obeyed. And that if he appears on the premises he is to be watched at all times and not permitted to do anything untoward. I shall come."

"You can take my bill for theft and damages to his father too; WITHOUT my compliments" said Agata.

Von Frettchen nodded.

"I don't know what to say to Ann" he said.

"Say nothing; do not disturb her happy anticipation of your wedding. Worry and upset can affect a woman and prevent her conceiving; do not let the little tyke win THAT way either" said Agata.

"I accept your advice; and having publicly washed my hands of him I shall not let him upset MY happy anticipation of our wedding either" said Von Frettchen.

oOoOo

The chanting class went ahead with the knowledge of a job well done on the part of those who had aided with the inventory of the dungeon; and Ihor Rebet felt much soothed.

Jade had been doing her own chanting too.

Eduard's brother and sister-in-law were fools; and Ignaz was a nasty fool. It would be better if he never got to breed. Jade danced a complex little dance involving patterns of the integers in twenty three factorial and using Ignaz Von Frettchen's name in a Finnish chant of no little complexity until she was absolutely certain that his unwitting scrotum was entirely incapable of producing viable sperm. What was sauce for the goose was sauce for the gander; save that the curse held no risk whatsoever to Ignaz. Jade had not looked that deep but she personally believed that Ignaz was at least peripherally aware of the potential risk to Ann; and had not cared, and indeed might have hoped deep down that she would die. Even if he was not prepared to admit it to himself.

And then Eduard Von Frettchen arrived in his magnificent flying coach and its fine flying horses.

oOoOo

Ignaz Von Frettchen had been going to appeal to the head, promise her much when he was duke, if she would only back him in this; he was unprepared to see his formidable uncle in the head's office when he was escorted there by elf.

He quailed.

"Your wand" said Agata. Trembling the boy gave it to her. She broke it across her knee. "You are a common thief and for that I expel you" she said coldly. "Your uncle is to see you back to your father with my bill for your theft and vandalism; and first, as school governor and husband of your intended victim he has his own discipline to enact. Herzog" she dropped a brief curtsey and left the two alone.

Shortly there were howls of anguish and outrage from her office; and shortly Von Frettchen left with a snivelling nephew who was conspicuously limping one side at a time.

His two fags, who had been subject to incitement from the Five, were chanting 'Send him down the mines' as uncle and nephew departed; which hearing, Eduard clipped the boy hard around the ear.

"And THAT's for being such an uncultured boor as to make your fags feel such despite for you!" he snarled.

The school as a whole were uncertain exactly WHAT Ignaz Von Frettchen had been doing that had caused his expulsion; save that he had been caught by Professor Rebet and Professor Von Luytens in the potions dungeon brewing something that was probably terribly toxic and dangerous like whatever it was that had once damaged Herr Rebet's lungs that had needed chanting to heal them and had probably been intending to poison a staff member or brew a love potion to make Desolina want to go to the ball with him or to murder Adelard Löenzahn for winning the duel against him. When notice was posted that the boy was stripped of his right to the honorific 'Von' the youngest at least were certain that it had been Frau Von Luytens who was his intended victim since everyone knew that Herzog Von Frettchen took a special interest in her because he had been sweet on her before her marriage – or she was his illegitimate daughter, depending on which rumour you believed – and he was much angered. The contingent that thought Jade to be Von Frettchen's daughter wondered if little Ralph would now be Von Frettchen's heir and Kunegunda Sternkessel asked Jade in the second's dark arts class if she would have to change Ralph's surname to Von Frettchen if he was now the Duke's heir.

Jade stared.

"Are you in any way suggesting, my girl, that Ralph is not my husband's child?" she said dangerously "Because there are laws of slander that are very rigorous; and I'll not have you spread such lies."

Kunegunda was nonplussed.

"But – but are you not Herzog Von Frettchen's daughter, Frau Von Luytens?" she asked.

Jade stared.

"If you thought that then I see you meant no slander; but honestly! WHERE did you come by such a taradiddle as that?"

"Please, it is because you have often spent time with him when he has visited the school; as we have seen last year."

"Of course I did, my good kid; when we were plotting together the overthrow of Odessa. Everyone should know THAT; we were public enough about it after we defended the Rathaus. It is the very reason I came to Durmstrang; as a liaison with the English who fought against Odessa. I'm not related to Eduard Von Frettchen in the least; though he has become a friend."

"Then if Ignaz V- er, Frettchen is not his heir any more, who is to be?" asked Kunegunda.

"Whichever brat his betrothed wife first pops out after they get married I should imagine" said Jade "It's the usual method of choosing an heir. Now as you do not intend to be intolerably rude to me about my marital fidelity I trust you do not intend to be intolerably rude to the rest of the class by further interrupting their studies? No? Good" as Kunegunda subsided. "You are NOT going to get out of anyone exactly what Ignaz Frettchen did to be expelled save that the most of it involved petty theft; and there comes a time when too many second chances have been given."

It implied that he had been caught stealing before; and they might believe that he had been let off because of his uncle being a governor if they wished; or that he had pleaded for other chances. It was an implied lie but it should at least scotch the rumours. Nobody spread rumours faster than second years; unless it was third years. And if there were rumours in the school that she was related to Von Frettchen, THAT ought to be put to bed too. Really, schools were a very hotbed of gossip!

oOoOo

Jade received a personal letter from Von Frettchen telling her that breaking the news of Ignaz' expulsion to the boy's parents had been most unpleasant; with his fond mama refusing point blank to accept that her boy was a common thief and demanding that her husband sue the school; and Eduard had been forced to tell her bluntly exactly what the boy HAD been up to, that HAD involved theft of school materials; and asked if she wanted the boy prosecuted under the old law of attempted murder of an unborn heir. She had burst into tears at this point and had become sufficiently hysterical that she had blurted out that her dear and noble boy was a far better heir than the brat of some female from who knew where. Eduard wrote that he had thrown a vase of water over her and told her coldly that HE knew where as he was conversant with Ann's antecedents which were, incidentally, pure blood. He sent Jade a potted history so she would know and could laugh at detractors of Ann. Ann's great grandfather had supported Gellert Grindelwald and had had sufficiently few high ranking and wealthy connections to avoid being one of those made scapegoats. Her grandfather had taken an opposite stand – having been hauled out of Durmstrang at the age of fourteen to support his mother and sisters – and had been killed by the newly arisen Odessa under Gerhardt some ten or eleven years previously. Her mother preferred to keep a low profile; and her father held a lowly post in the ministry and was from a humble, but honourable family. Von Frettchen could care less what his Ann's antecedents were; but it would help her to be accepted to be able to assure people that they were socially impeccable if not high born. Jade was glad the girl had something like pure blood to wave at the worst snobs; being low born and married to a duke could cause the most dreadful isolation regardless of how much one might love him. She planned to be at the wedding and show HER support to the girl; and Anett would be there too. Probably with her Mortimer just to irritate people. And the Nachtigalls; and doubtless as Eduard had good loyal friends they too would support his choice, in public at least.

Eduard wrote that his brother had stepped in at this point and told his wife that she did not know what she was saying in seeming to condone an act of wickedness that he would never have believed in his own son but that he would never disbelieve his own brother.

"_And that_" wrote Von Frettchen "_Was when I had to tell Radulph that regretfully I had used legilimensy on the boy and divined that he had half hoped that Ann would die of it, for he knew its potentially dangerous side effects; and that I planned to disown him whether I got an heir on Ann or not, and if she could not give me sons I should pick whichever of Ignaz' bastards he had fathered on the local muggles as I felt best. Herein Radulph began to cry and declared himself a bad father, which I could not contradict. It is a sorry business. I am incidentally considering finding out if he HAS fathered any bastards and taking them under my protection; and sending them to your school if they display any talent. Ann's brother is a very talented child so he will probably go instead to Prince Peak; he was to have gone to Durmstrang, in fact the whole family, including Ann were saving for it. However he has struck up a friendship with a goblin lad; the one Ann saved the life of in the awful building we inspected when the child would have fallen through worm eaten banisters, so it seems meet that they should stay together. Naturally if any children Ignaz has show high talent I shall act appropriately but I think it unlikely; he has not got much to pass on himself. I only wish I could stop him propagating any more_."

oOoOo

Jade used a mindspeaking spell to contact Eduard to tell him that he need worry no more about any further offspring; and the Duke was much relieved.

"He has three children on muggle women as I have found out since writing to you; and the oldest is almost three, the precocious brat that he is! He'll spend the rest of his life trying to kill me and any children I have of course" he said "But he's not so competent I have to be seriously worried. And sooner or later when he is adult he will overstep the mark and then I can call duel on him and kill him."

"If I was you I'd arrange an accident before he does as much for your kids" growled Jade. "He's bad through and through; and I don't think he's salvable. Unless you want to think about chanting him back to childhood and starting again – with a more sensible approach from your brother."

"By Thor, that IS a thought" said Von Frettchen "And actually, next time he transgresses, I shall give him the choice of being handed over to the Vehmgerichten or being returned to childhood. And he'll choose the latter because he won't think through what it means and will assume he won't lose his knowledge."

It was a good solution; and Jade concurred it to be the best compromise where obnoxious Ignaz was concerned.

_Note: how many people picked up my tongue in cheek references to muggle rock groups with attendant bad puns? _

_Nachthexe = Nightwitch pun on Nightwish: lead singer in the real world until she left the incomparable Tarja _

_Kunstwerk, = artwork, a slightly mangled Craftwerk and of course 'We are the inferii' fits the wizarding world better then 'we are the robots' _

_Katti Krätzen is just my comment on screechy voiced female singers with too much vibrato too much visibly on display most of whom do awful things to the American national anthem at Superbowl matches. _

_I thought I'd better explain as I've had complaints that I use too much foreign without translation and it's a waste of me coming up with fun names if it goes past everyone… _

_Oh and the magazine 'Hochehexen' = Highwitches and is a parody of every society magazine there is with their attendant drivel about the great and the good but mostly only about celebrities. _


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

Five small boys dropped to the back of the runners and veered left as they passed the broomsheds, quickly hastening within.

They had already cached in here a firkin of pumpkin juice and the last two weeks' worth of sweeties bought with pocket money from the tuck shop run by an elderly elf; who by reason of age and infirmity did little else but keep it stocked and sell to children at cost. It had taken some ingenuity on Jade's part to find a reason to send HER to England; coming up with the happy idea of sending her to buy jellied dark creatures. Which, having been very successful, Jade had suggested that she ask a succession of younger elves to undertake so long a journey for her to replenish stocks.

The five knew nothing about this and had indulged largely in chocolate and toffee; the weather being cold enough that their sweeties kept without melting.

"And a jolly good job it is that we had reasonable weather to be able to run" said Beryx "I hardly slept for listening in case a blizzard struck."

"Oh? The snores were just for effect were they?" grinned Sigismund "If a blizzard had struck you'd have drowned it out."

There was a brief scuffle.

"Are we going to eat any of the sweeties while we wait for it to be time?" asked Beremud as the combatants dusted themselves off and dealt with such things as pustules and tentacles, the first having had a lesson in Dark Arts on minor jinxes the week before with in class duelling, and it being a lesson they had enjoyed.

"What, to build up our sugar reserves before we do it? Not a half bad idea" said Lindhard. "Besides, my belly's growling."

"And as that is offensive to my musical sensibilities – and so is mine – I vote it a good idea" said Corneliu.

They carefully ate about a third of the sweets.

They needed their strength for the ceremony.

oOoOo

When the time came – Corneliu had a very good bedside clock that he had brought out – they all counted down the seconds to slit their palms open and pass around blood, saying 'we be of one blood, ye and I' on the principle that it was a phrase suggested by Frau Von Luytens and if it wasn't broke, one didn't fix it.

The total knowledge of brotherhood and the extreme lassitude that washed over them simultaneously was a shock; though they had been warned, it was more on both counts than they could have imagined.

They slumped together in a heap, barely remembering to use _episkayo._

"I say" said Beremud "I know it's a bit soppy, but I'm so happy I could actually cry."

"Me too" admitted Corneliu "I guess it's not that soppy if it's something special."

There was a long silence.

"If my half brother's all right really" said Sigismund "If we brought him into THIS he'd never have to be afraid of anyone again; I feel like I could chew up and spit out any bully; well I will when I've recovered a bit."

"That's what we have pumpkin juice and chocs for" said Lindhard, sitting up. "And we're sweating like mad too from exertion so we need the fluid. Crumbs, Frau Von Luytens was right to warn us!"

"Second thoughts?" asked Beryx.

"No way! Just surprise!" said Lindhard _**ssss**_ _I say, can you understand me?_ _**ssss **_ he asked.

_**ssss**_We be of one blood, ye and I _**ssss**_ hissed the others.

"I still don't feel particularly musical" said Beryx.

"Silly, what's to feel about it?" said Sigismund "It's going to be on so deep a level it sort of just boosts your ability to perform; but I guess if you make up music either you do or you don't, 'cos I can't see THAT transferring unless you almost could anyway. We ought to know each other's languages too, and that's handy, having German on a more instinctive level; to deal with some of Frau Von Luytens' more sort of wordy and – and multisyllabic efforts."

"She only gets that long winded on miscreants" said Beremud. "I wish one of us was Ukrainian though; I've heard it said that Professor Rebet is entertainingly colourful when he loses his rag enough to lapse into his own tongue."

Thus the priorities of small boys.

The five turned up for breakfast mostly restored – and without any damage to their appetites despite gorging themselves – with expressions so innocent that Attila leaned over and asked Jade

"I suppose whatever they were planning has come to fruition; should the staff worry?"

Jade glanced at the happy boys.

"I wouldn't worry in the least, Attila; at least, not yet. Give it a week or so and THEN worry."

He gave a bark of laughter.

"Well if I catch them at anything I shall punish them hard" he said.

"They don't expect anything else" said Jade.

oOoOo

Her timing was fairly accurate; it was almost week later that the Five, who had spent Corneliu's pocket money enthusiastically on certain items they had wheedled an elf to purchase for them, utilised their time in the dungeon to mix ingredients in another cauldron between them to make gunpowder-impregnated paper that they glued carefully on doors and doorframes on a late night excursion so that whenever the said doors were closed in any way but gently there was a loud detonation and the smell of cordite.

As children rarely close doors gently there was a lot of detonation. It caused considerable consternation and a lot of smoke and no little disruption to classes. Agata addressed the school at Mittagessen.

"Would the ingenious perpetrators of the exploding doors care to claim authorship of the prank?" she said.

The Five rose.

"I see" said Agata "Why am I not surprised? I have had two punishments suggested to me for this; Frau Von Luytens suggested writing out the entire score of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture; and Professor Nagy suggested six of the best. I think I'll give you gentlemen the benefit of the choice."

There were quick exchanged glances.

"Six, please, Ma'am" said Sigismund as spokesman. It was quicker over and less arduous than a really difficult piece of copying!

"Very good; report to my office half an hour after school to receive sentence" said Agata.

"On your honour not to use your new skills to share it about" said Jade quietly.

"Ma'am we WOULDN'T!" said Sigismund.

oOoOo

Sentence was carried out by Attila Nagy who was no more lenient with Sigismund than with the others. Nor, as they agreed afterwards, was he particularly harsh.

They went for a gentle stroll outside to cool certain regions down before risking sitting down to do prep.

oOoOo

Axel, Wencelada, Zyrillis and less willingly Grishilde, all now in the third, discussed that, although they had not really felt themselves quite up to Marauding, it was time for older ones to do something to rival such enterprise from mere first years; and they decided to combine with the second year Marauders, Kjell, Sofie, Leva and Elfleda.

Wencelada suggested that, although none of them were great potioneers, they were all rather competent chanters and suggested using that as a basis.

Elfleda suggested cursing an area of corridor with reverse gravity; Kjell suggested turning anyone who went through that section of corridor green with Avocado Kedavra they having learned that in Dark Arts as being, as Jade had put it, Multicoloured Arts but valid for its formula.

Axel suggested it might be more amusing to make the section of corridor make everyone who had passed through it tell the absolute and total truth for a couple of hours; and the eight conspirators headed for the library.

oOoOo

"When I see young people in the library getting books out that are NOT the usual texts from which they may be expected to study for their age, and are indeed from two separate years, do I assume they are up to mischief?" asked Ihor in the staffroom.

"It's a fair bet" said Jade "Which little horrors are these?"

"The four from the third and the four from the second who are closest in the ECC" said Ihor. "They were looking up babbling curses and complaining that the only way to make people tell the truth required potioneering solutions."

"Hmm. If they have a liar in their sights I might help out" said Jade "I'll drop in and interfere a little bit; if it's mischief I won't ask and I'll let them go ahead and take their punishment."

She duly beckoned Elfleda over after the next meal.

"Do you have problems with a liar, you or the third?" she asked.

Elfleda stared.

"No Frau Von Luytens" she said.

"Then I suggest if you are planning mischief you do NOT discuss it so loudly when Professors are in the library wondering why juniors are suddenly so keen on library work" said Jade "The book you want is on the third shelf from the back with its cover mostly disintegrated and I wish you joy of reading the Gothic type."

"THANK you!" said Elfleda.

"Hoppit" said Jade "Before I hear about this officially; I have a detention to design for the lot of you when you pull it off."

Elfleda giggled and hopped it.

oOoOo

Two days later several people in the upper sixth ended up with detentions from Herr Rebet when they explained with excruciating honesty how they felt about him and potions; and Ihor had too to listen to some franker discussions than he might have liked from an upper sixth class whose female members were, some of them, looking forward to learning to brew amortentia; and Calvina Leckkessel explained that it wasn't fair that Von Luytens was such a bloody good teacher because one couldn't really sabotage her without sabotaging one's own lessons. And Claudette Reynoult sulkily agreeing with her.

Jade laughed when Ihor relayed this.

"At least they have the sense not to cut off their own noses to spite their own faces; unlike Czerny."

"I do not teach her; she never was even a competent potioneer and I banned her my class before the ZP's for trying to spoil another's work" said Ihor. "It has been quite a er, revelation."

"Entertaining enough to compensate for the rudeness?" asked Jade.

"On the whole" said Ihor.

"Well, obviously you have to punish the ones who caused this; I have a suggestion" said Jade.

oOoOo

Accordingly, the eight were up before Professor Rebet, who explained that divining the culprits had NOT been hard since they had been so good as to discuss some of their plans in the library beforehand as he had overheard; and as they had devised a mischief that had meant he had to punish the ones who told less than pleasant unvarnished truth they might share the punishment with the said victims and gut horned toads on Friday evening.

The upper sixth did not even glare at the eight juniors; assuming them to have been caught by the same curse. And Ihor did not enlighten them otherwise. Jade had uncursed the section of passage by the senior common room and nobody was any the wiser how the matter had occurred.

Save Konstanty Masicwicz, who had risen to the challenge as head boy and was fairly certain he could guess what had happened; and he presented the eight with a box of chocolates for, as he murmured, saving him from the intended machinations of a girl in his class who babbled how she planned to poison him with amortentia; and it was worth gutting horned toads for relaying a frank opinion about Claudette Reynoult to escape the attention of one Tatiana Gorshoka.*

The eight conspirators beamed at him and Wencelada, who liked Herbology, assured him he deserved much better than an ampelopsis like her.

"Kind of ampelopsis meets devils' snare" said Konstanty dryly.

Wencelada giggled; the idea of Tatiana as a fast growing, ensnaring plant entwining about Konstanty and sucking him dry was rather amusing.

"And Claudette Reynoult and Erzebet Czerny are snargaluff" she added.

Konstanty went off chuckling.

"I'm not sure I can cope with this level of mischief as an ongoing thing" said Agata to Jade.

"Oh it isn't; it's the end of the Yule term. It's one of the two times of high mischief" said Jade. "The other time is somewhere towards half way through the term in the spring term when they've been cooped up inside for weeks in bad weather and either it breaks out during the bad weather as a form of high spirits that need SOME outlet, or they channel their energies into planning something that needs slightly better weather to undertake and it happens after the weather breaks. Mischief is what keeps professors young; at least that was the excuse I generally used when I got caught at it" she added, grinning.

"What happened as a response to that comment?" asked Agalisse Schreiber.

"A cuff across the back of the head from dad" laughed Jade. "Think how much they're learning pulling off such mischief; they NEEDED old low German to pull the truthspeaking curse, and chanting; and the first did some constructive potioneering and applied it with originality. There was no HARM in either jape; though I bet some of the upper sixth are embarrassed."

"Lower sixth too" said Katarina "I had the few of them that do Arithmancy and the train of thought of my name brought up some VERY frank opinions of Cousin Heinrich. Saula Kim reckons that boiling him in oil would so contaminate the oil that it would become a dark personality with consciousness of its own and would ooze through the world weeping at its nature. I was inclined to agree there actually" she added.

"I think I caught the back end of it" said Panayot Panov "My class of charms follows Arithmancy to accommodate anyone who is taking both; actually most of them were fairly complimentary though some of them a little more frank in their compliments than I might have liked" and he blushed.

"Oh it does the girls no harm to have a role model they can enjoy a little harmless and unrequited first love for" said Jade.

"Yes; but when it's one of the boys I do start to worry" said Panayot.

"Panayot, if he's struggling with his sexuality, having a kind teacher who is not in a situation of being scary for being likely to do anything about it to feel the seethings of his lust over, it may help him come to terms with it" said Jade "Be kind but distant; he'll be embarrassed but if you tell your class that they should none of them feel bad about expressing emotions that are natural and that they cannot in any wise help, they should be able to deal with it. Let them know that you will not be thinking about it in class because it is wiser to put the incident behind; and that you hope they find a partner to love in the future."

"Thank you Jade; you are wise" said the Bulgarian Charms Professor.

"I've seen enough girls get silly over dad and his romantic scar" said Jade cynically. "Not to mention the fight that had to be broken up over the supporters and admirers of two of the rather young and handsome professors at Prince Peak; David Fraser, international quidditch referee and triwizard champion, doesn't half get a load of mooning dippy girls drooling over him. Having a pash on an older girl or female professor is a stage girls pass through, an asexual form of admiration; the mooning over a sexual object who's untouchable is a way of practising the feelings that rage uncontrolled with changing hormones without actually having it leading anywhere. Dad married two of his pupils of course, but then he didn't stand a chance against mum, and Dione needed taking care of having been raped by her stepfather; and with mum and dad bringing up the fruit of that unholy union I guess falling into a relationship with them was inevitable. I thought she was just one more silly girl until we were fighting huorns and then she left dad to take such risks as he had to and staunchly defended mum. I'm glad I have an uncomplicated relationship though" she added.

oOoOo

Pashes aside, the relationships and their complexities leading to the ball had their usual side effects; and Jade broke up an impromptu corridor duel between two boys, who were being egged on with impartial greed for attention by the object of their desires.

Jade set all three of them all fifty repetitions of 'Love is a many splendoured thing' and told them to report to a prefect for a sanctioned duel.

To her mind, this was more trouble in the school than mischief; but it was one of those things necessary in the art of growing up.

oOoOo

Konstanty and Serafina were to decorate the Hall for the Ball and they came to beg Jade's advice as she had been so clever the year before.

"Normally it is just done with evergreens and gold and red baubles" said Konstanty "In one variation or another."

"A theme is often good" said Jade "Last year my theme was the whimsy of being the size of a fairy. You are both Slavic; Polish and Russian. What about using Slavic tales as your inspiration? Perhaps do up the hall as a –rather outsize – rustic dacha with log walls and gay hangings and have the elves serve good peasant food, Borscht and such; alongside a hog roast as well, as a wealthy peasant might manage, and birch wine? The floor may be polished wood as is a good dancing surface, with rag rugs near a big stove. Nachthexe do some numbers based on folk songs; I am sure they would include those numbers and we might dance folk dances as well as the more formal numbers. Let there be illusions of windows with carved shutters but open so that the wintry scene you set of a snowy forest might show through…. All right, I'll help you with that" she added seeing their dismay "And I'll show you how to do it too. All folksy and cosy; should be good."

"Thank you Frau Von Luytens" said Serafina "You are SO imaginative."

Jade laughed.

"Oh I look for a theme and let my mind freewheel" she said. "It's not so hard; just takes a little practice."

oOoOo

The last thing before the Ball were the end of term tests; and Jade sat in the staffroom to mark them in the sure and certain knowledge that there would be the odd howler in every test that most of the staff were happy to share with the rest to lighten the mood of the marking; and whilst one might sigh as much as one laughed that Desolina Uccello managed to calculate seven factorial to something over three million – and as Katarina said, the class ought surely to know by now it constituted the number of feet in a wizarding mile, five thousand and forty – at least she now knew what the term 'factorial' meant which had escaped most of that class under Madam Schreiber's barely adequate teaching.

"Wait up, is it three million, six hundred thousand and umpty?" asked Jade.

"Yes it is" said Katarina.

"Grade her for enthusiasm then; she's gone up to ten factorial" said Jade "I can't recall the number off the top of my head but it's in the right region."

Katarina did a quick mental calculation.

"You're dead right Jade; thanks" she said.

"Well listen to this for obviousness but not much actual information from one of my ZP lot" said Jade "HONESTLY! 'the unforgivable curses are called the unforgivable curses because using them is unforgivable. If you use them they don't ever forgive you because they are all nasty. One of them kills you and the others are nasty too and pretty unforgivable.' And if that isn't an exercise in the brain dead trying to achieve the mental agility of an inferius I don't know what is!"

The other teachers laughed and sighed.

"I wouldn't mind betting that's Frieda Verwirremann" sighed Ihor "I've got one of hers here; 'Gollapot was an English potioneer. Because he was English he was a famous and very good potioneer. He wrote some laws about potioneering. He is famous for writing the laws and being English.'"

"I sometimes wonder how that child manages to walk and breathe both at the same time" said Jade "She's no trouble, mind; save if you want to talk to her or ask a question to see if she's listening – she invariably isn't – and she sits there with her mouth at half mast all big blue eyes and nobody home."

"I threatened her with the confusing and befuddlement draught once to see if it would make any difference; but I don't believe it would" said Ihor. "Personally I feel like going up to her and rapping on her skull with my knuckles to check if anyone's home."

"There isn't" said Atilla. "Listen to this; 'Switching charms are for switching one thing for another' – all well and good so far, I thought I might even get a coherent answer out of her but then she ran true to form; she goes on 'unless they are for switching something on or off. Whichever it does, switching charms does it."

"Lord, poor child" sighed Jade. "Is the poor little sap actually any good at anything?"

"Not in theory but she is very good with unicorns" rumbled Orlando Carcano "And with flying horses. They being superior sorts of creatures they like to know that they can look down on the poor child and snigger for having more intellect than she. She'll be fine as an assistant to an animal handler; which should mean working for someone capable of gentling her like a dimmish animal."

"Her parents hope she'll make a brilliant marriage" said Agata gloomily.

"Well as most trolls outclass her in the smarts I'd say they'll be disappointed" said Jade "I know some men like submissive and not very bright wives, but y'know, they might as well be getting their heirs on a sheep. We can only hope she doesn't want children; she might breed true."

"Well let's pass to the other end of the spectrum" said Atilla "Listen to this. 'It is easy to turn a matchstick into a needle because they are both long, narrow and straight and have a similarity of form. Sometimes you use similarity of name to change things and the process has a long name like assumptive comingling because I found it in the library when I was looking up how to turn Kostina into a cabbage' the little horror – this is Sigismund Tóth – and he went on 'and the way to do it is through looking at her hair which kind of scrunches into layers like cabbage leaves especially if you turn her green first with _avocado kedavra_ when you can also think about her having a heart of solid yuk like cabbage when it's served at Mittagessen'."

Jade laughed.

"Not that far off assimilative correlation; you have to credit honesty; and an ingenious bit of reasoning."

"Oh it more than fulfils the answer I was looking for; but HOW do I grade it?" groaned Attila.

"Full marks for the question and a little rider to the effect that you didn't really want to know his grubby little intentions towards Kostina" said Jade.

"Thanks; I'll do that" said Attila, much relieved.

"I can see I shall be running extra classes on number bases with some of the first" groaned Katarina "Tóth and his cronies have it no problem, and a few others, but HOW can Alois Dunkelschwann make ten into eight-two in base eight?"

"Sure it isn't a mind warp and he meant one-two, and was thinking too hard about it being one lot of eight?" asked Jade.

"Only if he had the same mind warp in the other questions about other bases" said Katarina. "He's got C-three for sixteen in base thirteen; he has missed the fundamental point that you represent the top number in a base by a one and a zero."

"Oops" said Jade "get an abacus; one you can string with different numbers of beads; get him to work the questions again in front of you with it, and make him tell you now many beads are on each pole."

"I like that" said Katarina. "Good job the poor kid hasn't got Madam Granger; she's really good but she can't cope with the total dunderheads in her subject; she just can't understand why they miss the point."

"That's why she sends them to mum for remedial classes" said Jade. "And can again do so, now Cornelius Albus Ronald arrived safely with red hair and squawking" she added proudly, having been pleased to share around the birthing the previous month.

"Heh, you can use your kid siblings as a living abacus you've got so many" laughed Katarina.

"Oh, mum likes a challenge in Arithmancy" said Jade airily.

"Would she like a challenge in a transfigurations student?" growled Attila "From Sigismund's rather good efforts to the wild inaccuracies of Zdena Masicwicza; 'it isn't easy at all to turn a matchstick into a needle. It is supposed to be something similar but I don't see that a matchstick is at all similar to a needle. A needle is made of metal and a matchstick is made of wood. I don't see why a button is like a beetle either. If you want a needle they're not expensive to buy so why bother anyhow?'"

"Poor kid" said Jade "David Fraser –animagus and with ability to turn himself into a griffon – has had similar blind spots; couldn't get the reasons behind some of assimilative correlation at all, did the lot on raw power. He wrote in his NEWT about the use of muggle taxonomy where Latin names are used descriptively and so may aid assimilative correlation. Why not talk to her about early bone needles, that more nearly resemble matchsticks?"

"I'll try it" said Attila. "Any other ideas?"

"See if you can't get her to go through mid stages; a decorative button in the shape of a ladybird or something" said Jade "Most of us go through mid stages at some point in a complex transfiguration; at the level of the first it shouldn't be necessary but for the slower ones, obviously it is. Knopf to Käfer is a little forced as the equivalent button to beetle is in English. Get her for her matchstick to go from streicholtz, a matchstick, to Stift, which can be a pencil or a pin, to stechnagel, a pin, to nagel, a needle and tell her that the naming of it out loud will help as being Finnish naming magic, which she has heard me mention in Dark Arts class in passing."

"You are good with the dim ones, Jade" admired Agata.

"Used to breaking stuff down for very little children" shrugged Jade. "The ones who listen in on adult conversations because they've been forgotten because they were so quiet reading behind the sofa and who snuggle confidingly up to you and say 'what's 'simlative cowelation Jade and does it help turn spinach into somesings nice?' which when they're about six is a little difficult to answer."

"Her family are all as clever as she is" said Katarina dryly.

"Apparently" said Agata.

oOoOo

With the vicissitudes of the exams over the school might enjoy the run up to the end of term – save those in remedial classes to try to help them to start the next term on a level closer to their confreres – and the ball.

Konstanty and Serafina had taken Jade's suggestion and all was charmingly rustic; a contrast to some of the fantastic robes worn by some of the students. Jade had hastily sewn herself a robe similar to the peasant garb of the Ukraine, whose muggle national costume was more like a formal robe of the wizarding world, and had decorated it with braid appropriately and conjured flowers to wear in her hair. Wolf thought she looked charming and Jade had to summon some more flowers because the original ones got a little crushed in her husband's appreciation.

Nachthexe were quite impressed by the complexity of the illusions and got together to add reindeer galloping past the illusory windows with sleigh bells ringing as an accompaniment to one of their numbers; one reason, as Jade said approvingly, they were some of the top performers in the world; adaptive, inventive and enthusiastic.

The dancing went well and Jade for one enjoyed herself.

The music was good; and if the dancing was a little indifferent, the jolly and cosy atmosphere of the great hall was a bit more conducive to having a good time than under the pedestrian décor customary to the ball of yore.

"How will WE decorate the hall next year, Frau Von Luytens?" asked Zhanargul.

Jade resisted the temptation to say 'carefully' and suggested,

"How about as a tent on the steppes? Set up as for a great feast? Or perhaps you may pick classical inspiration, with columns, remembering not to mix your type of column tops and that they run in period Doric-Ionic-Corinthian-Composite depending on the feel you want. Or pick a work of fiction and make a décor to suit; a palace from the Arabian Nights say. Have fun with it, Scheherazade!"

Zhanargul grinned.

"I'll try" she said "I quite like the idea of being Scheherazade."

"Just don't try to be the Princess Orinjade" said Jade "You people do NOT read the right books" she added as Zhanargul looked puzzled.

The Hogwarts kids would have picked up the Asterix reference right away; still it was early days.

And at last the holidays were on them; and Jade was glad, it had been a very long seeming term. She was to be away to Eduard Von Frettchen's wedding with Agata and Katarina; with luck she might manage a flying visit to see her family in England too. And doubtless she would be busy picking up the pieces of the various problems that had arisen over the term that Ruprecht Schutzmann wanted her reassurance over sorting out. And if she could find time, it would be nice to squeeze in a visit to Lucius to see how he did with the texts; non stop action.

But that was life.

And Zhanargul was safe enough to go home for the holiday with her uncle behind bars; and a rather disoriented Lich who probably did not count her the same level of priority her uncle had was unlikely to be a trouble to her either.

* Gorshok; cauldron.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

Ann was no beauty; but you could not say that she was plain. Jade was reminded of a painting by Gainsborough of a striking lady whose nose was too prominent for beauty but at whom you would definitely look twice. Ann had charisma.

Eduard introduced them proudly and Jade kissed the bride affectionately.

"I'm glad he has a good match" she said "I've become moderately fond of the old reprobate."

"Less of the old" said Von Frettchen.

Ann grinned.

"I am ignorant by his standards but he teaches me, and it is fun to learn" she said. "He is a good teacher and not too much of a reprobate."

Jade grinned back. The girl had the self assurance not to leap in with a defence of her beloved; which augured well. She accepted teasing and she accepted him as he was. There must be twenty years between them; but the look they exchanged showed that this was quite immaterial.

And she was not backward about answering criticism of her background; when one slightly inebriated count asked what her family background was she answered quickly,

"MY family took a fall for being in Gellert Grindelwald's organisation as a scapegoat for yours and others like yours, My Lord; as MY family was too honest to deny the matter and hide behind wealthy and well connected friends."

It may have taken a while for the schnapps soaked count to realise she had just called his family dishonest; but others appreciated the subtlety.

The wedding went ahead without a hitch; Von Frettchen's brother was there but he brought his wife's apologies as she was said to be suffering a migraine. He did not mention the absence of his son.

Anett and her father were there, and Mortimer too, to the obvious outrage of some of the guests especially those who tried to intimidate him by asking about HIS family background. And Mortimer made no secret of being born poor. That he too added 'but honest' was NOT lost on the cleverer.

Cacilia Von Freyer was there among others and she and Jade embraced; and Jade went to join the vigorously moving fringe of the table to explain to one small human boy and one small goblin boy that they were rather visible and if they were planning on poisoning the guests would they do it with more discretion please.

"Oh please, Gnadige Fraulein, I only wanted to show Serrik what it was like because the guests would throw a fit if he was in here and not hidden" said the human child "And we thought we could maybe get some goodies down here."

"Half a mo" said Jade "YOU'RE officially here as the brother of the bride – if I've guessed your identity right – so now you have a cousin" and she transfigured Serrik into a human boy in identical robes to Wilhelm. "Now go and fill a plate each and wander casually outside with it. I made that transfiguration to last an hour; do NOT get turned into a pumpkin by being around when it wears off. Have a good time!"

"Oh THANK you Gnadige Hexe!" said the goblin boy.

"And by the way, are you the author of the dirigible fart curse on the fat lady with the whining voice?" asked Jade.

"Is that what it's called? I kinda figured out what must be happening and figured out how to do it from seeing the Triwizard on public viewing globe" said Wilhelm.

"Well if you reverse engineered that you jolly well deserve to be at Prince Peak next year; Professor Parnassus will be delighted. In her time she was the author of the fluorescent fart jinx" said Jade "WHY do I make more trouble for my family by encouraging naughty little boys?" she added unanswerably before sliding back out from under the table.

"Nefrita?" said Ann "Are you all right?"

"Fine; just aiding and abetting your small brother in his mischief" said Jade cheerfully. "You acquired a cousin for the duration so his friend can partake of the goodies."

"I was going to save him some" said Ann "Mind you, there'll be enough for them both to take on a picnic tomorrow anyway; the sort of indoor picnic that tastes so much better than eating at the table."

"I love small boys" said Jade "But I couldn't eat a whole one."

Ann looked briefly startled then laughed.

"And with most you'd take your life into your hands for reason of hygiene – or its lack" she added.

The small boys had disappeared with their trophies before the dancing started; and Jade watched in approval as Ann melted into Eduard's arms.

If there wasn't an heir within the year she would be very much surprised.

The Christmas decorations were typically German as well as typically goblin made; brightly enamelled tweeting birds fluttered around the tree and little lanterns had rotating screens of different coloured glass that changed colour as the screens rotated and Jade though how much more subtle the effect would be using the streelug dyes in glass and made a note to pass on to Garjala and the Weasley twins the idea.

"Admiring my decorations?" said Eduard.

"They are very traditional; and nothing wrong with that" said Jade "One can always recognise a German Christmas."

"I bought the decorations directly from goblin craftsmen who were amazed how much I was willing to pay for them" said Von Frettchen grimly "Because commonly they either make them in factories or sell to factory outlets and the goblins are paid a pittance for a mark up of around eightfold profits or more."

Jade whistled.

"And I thought there was exploitation in England!" she said. "The Weasleys, who are very fair employers, sell at double the wages per item, of which about half is profit; they make between ten per cent and thirty per cent profit on each item and go by the adage stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap. Small profits when you are selling large amounts comes to more than a higher profit margin on a few items. And when they do really well they pass that back with a bonus in the pay packet of their workers. Their stuff is cheap and cheerful but better quality then you'd think for the price. So, are you planning on setting up goblin toy factories, upping the wages and cutting the prices?"

"It's not such a bad idea at that" said Von Frettchen.

"I'll be doing similar; we must be careful not to overlap too much in our ventures at first" said Jade "Later healthy competition will be good but our initial aim is to force out of business the ones who are cheating their workforce. Which will be harder if we get engaged in a price war with each other."

"Quite so" said Von Frettchen "You know much about market forces, Jade."

"Not more than any oik" shrugged Jade "I know Henry Ford said 'make as much as you can for the lowest cost that you can, charging as much as you can and paying the highest wages you can' which is a good principle to follow; well paid workers are loyal and give their best efforts. It's common sense without the humanitarian values included."

"I have not heard of this Henry Ford; he is perhaps famous for his magical toys only in England?"

"He's one of the more famous muggle manufacturers of cars, who made them available by the cheap design he evolved to a significant portion of the muggle population when all cars fell into the sort of cost category of a top flight racing broom" said Jade dryly. "His principles of manufacture hold true for the wizarding world too however and Lucius quotes him regularly."

"I see; yes I acknowledge that muggles have valid lessons to teach us" said Von Frettchen. "What fields of manufacture are you interested in?"

"I was considering potioneering and educational kit" said Jade "Cauldrons, scales, stirrers, cutlery, basic furniture, fancy ink wells with clever concepts like being unspillable, quills, parchment; I was too thinking of setting up paper making factories for cheap and cheerful writing paper rather than use parchment. Actually I'm going to start the school with muggle made exercise books because they can spoil them if they're careless and need more writing practice and it won't really matter. There's a company called Rhino who make them and half their profits go to help preserve an endangered species, the rhino, which is related to erumpants and could bear study. So I'm buying off the internet; and cheap muggle pens too that don't need dipping. And I'm thinking of getting THAT concept introduced into the goblin manufactories too. And the marketing strategy 'no mess, no fuss, no inkstains'."

"Brilliant!" said Eduard. "Well I shall go for toys then – and see what else catches my eye."

"Springs" said Jade "Everyone uses springs from carriage manufacturers to watchmakers."

"I shall bear that in mind; clocks and watches too are a possibility" he added.

"Clockwork generally? Music boxes and so on? We may overlap in some respects but that defines some good boundaries on the whole" said Jade. "I'm also considering going into publishing; I already have a tannery so there's leather goods to consider. And maybe clothing."

"Well this HAS been a productive conversation" approved Eduard.

Jade agreed. Von Frettchen potentially had control of what might be the high end of the market but she thought her everyday goods would do very well thank you.

She resisted the urge to round off the wedding in traditional style by dropping the fluorescent fart jinx on Von Frettchen's brother and loosed it instead on the tipsy count – now rather more paralytic than tipsy – who was drunk enough to be entertainingly fluorescent more or less permanently.

oOoOo

Lucius showed Jade the text he had found pertaining to Abaris when she visited Malfoy Manor.

"It's a Russian edition of a sixteenth century work, 'Ancient Greek Wizards, their lives and deeds' by a chap who names himself Apollodorus after the historian of the same name" he said. "Nowadays we'd call it a coffee table book; a lot of rather fanciful illustrations and slightly jazzed up histories. You get a better idea from the muggle works; John Lemprière's Classical Dictionary is actually about the best work there is for potted histories, and one works from there. There's a reference to Abaris as a teacher of Pythagorus – he ISN'T in the muggle work but Draco found him referenced on an on-line site about Scythians, and I hope you're pleased with how well the terminology tripped off my tongue."

"I'd be prouder of you if I didn't suspect you of practising for hours just to impress me" laughed Jade "So what does it actually say?"

"Basically that Abaris was killed by his detractors and waits until one will uncover him and be the means of arousing him" said Lucius "And you're right about me practising. Draco has it so pat now I feel I need to try to sound knowledgeable. I have an English edition of the same work too; the wording is subtly different and in English the hint is that he will rise again using the one who uncovers him – a far cry from 'by the agency of' as is implied in the Russian."

"Rather" agreed Jade "How did Nurtazin track him down?"

"There's a letter from a student of Pythagoras in one f his books who spent more time at the wizardry and less at the Arithmancy who mentions that they 'buried Abaris deep in his own filthy lair after he almost broke our master's heart and mind' and asks the reader to take a turn at guarding the burial, and gives fairly specific instructions about where it is. Apparently they covered his abode with sand magically conjured from their wands; but of course any inferii he had and items remained there too. The inferii you dealt with; the items we have to assume he took."

"There wasn't anything else there; we checked" said Jade. "If he missed anything it was minor enough to have been destroyed in our firestorm."

"That is likely to be powerful enough to deal with any minor items" said Lucius dryly "You Snapes, when you get going, are rather thorough."

"I wanted to let the kids dispel their fear of inferii" said Jade mildly "Anything else?"

"Draco tells me that Wikipedia is his friend" said Lucius "And what he found actually agrees with my own book on classical and pre-classical wizards, a slightly more scholarly work than Apollodorus' sensationalism. Though NOT one your friendly Dark Wizard had in HIS collection. Abaris, son of Seuthos, was said to have the gift of prophecy and to be a healer of remarkable simplicity and honesty who cured plagues."

"That don't sit with him being a lich" said Jade.

"He is also reputed to have corresponded with the tyrant Phalaris, though it's considered dubious" said Lucius.

"What, him of the brazen bull for cooking people in?" said Jade in disgust.

"The very same" said Lucius. "And though it is said to be spurious, if they DID correspond, supposing there were traps in Phalaris' words that turned Abaris to er, the Dark Side?"

"It's certainly plausible" said Jade "But too I can see him, being a scholar, investigating off his own bat such arts as are at best dodgy; and maybe being drawn in to the dark arts at first all unwittingly. WE have all the awful examples to put us off; if he WAS as simple and honest and as bone headed as the average Gryffindor, conceivably he really did NOT realise he was falling until he hit the bottom of depravity with a resounding crunch. Fuelled, I bet, by some resentment towards the terminally ungrateful – as people almost always are – who weren't content with being saved from plague but wanted him to be on tap with oh, Felix Felicis every week or something. Dad's always getting requests from people to brew them Felix; he usually scrawls on the letter 'make your bloody own' and sends them back by return of owl. Healers and potioneers are exploited if they don't make arrogant enough for the bastards to realise how fucking lucky they are to have them in their midst."

"Dear me, an impassioned comment; on behalf of Severus' treatment by the others of the Order of the Phoenix as much as anything else I fancy."

"That IS in there" admitted Jade. "Dad's got over being resentful; he's cynical but always pleased to be surprised and he DID send a vial of Felix gratis to the kid who had lost his pet cat. Sometimes he's like that. And the child wrote back in gratitude with a picture of the cat he'd drawn himself and news of how the felix suggested he look somewhere he'd never have otherwise thought of. The cat survived; and the kid has a talent as an artist so Dad's in correspondence with his parents over coming to Prince Peak, so it worked out well."

"Which is a lovely story; and running off the point" said Lucius "Though I suppose only by a little. Severus manages to take joy in the small pleasures in life and in others now; but he was a dour creature when he felt so devalued. Yes, I can quite see simple, honest, Gryffindorish healer Abaris getting Gryffishly snippy about not being given due respect. Peter Pettigrew started off simple and honest remember and considered worthy enough to be a Gryff by the Hat AND by the other Marauders. Continual belittling, even by friends, drove HIM to the dark arts. Rather ineffectually. A clever version of him, a James Potter without the urge for glory but feeling he deserved SOME recognition could well fall from grace. I think you have it; and my fancy theories about Phalaris are probably spurious."

Jade shrugged.

"He may have written to Phalaris; and it contributed. The point is, he fell. And we have to pick up the pieces. And I think that even if his knife was not a horcrux, it and his body combined formed something similar so it's likely he has shattered his soul. Should I work on getting him to repent and see what he has become and what he should have been?"

"Once he's agreed to undeath? No. Too much risk. Priority one is to get rid of him."

Jade nodded.

"You're a pragmatist, Lucius. Daddy would hesitate; he's an old softy deep down. You, like him, have had a second chance; but you're less an academic and more a pragmatic politician. And though I'd like to go the route of compassion I don't think it's practical."

oOoOo

Ruprecht was on top of everything; he reported that there were no problems that required the Fraulein Baronin's personal attention though she was welcome to spot check that he had covered everything.

"I just like to know what's going on" said Jade "I WILL spot check from time to time; and that's for your protection too, to be sure nobody can claim you're skimping if you're not; and too to make sure nobody's fooling you. I suckled cynicism along with my first meals; I'm not a nice innocent boy like you."

Ruprecht grinned.

"I'm not THAT innocent" he said "I started losing that working in a bank; and the sharp practises some of the firms I've been employing have tried to pull were a revelation! The ones I couldn't pin anything actually illegal to I dispensed with the services of; the ones who could be prosecuted I threatened and watched. I said 'one warning and you better shape up or it's the Vehmgerichten' which seemed to work."

"NOT so innocent!" grinned Jade "Smart work. How IS it going?"

"I had to evict the family in Schatten Street whose daughter was raped by the goblin; the father was threatening to burn down the apartment block in revenge for you bringing shame on the family by telling the authorities and ruining his daughter's reputation. Not a damn care about the kid's pain, humiliation and the inevitable loss; she incidentally lost her temper and told him that she hated him for murdering her baby because at least her baby would have loved her which he didn't. Whining ineffectual mother. I installed the girl as an apprentice with that tailor and his wife; a more stable family background. I thought you'd not object to paying for the apprenticeship?"

"Not at all; and if she uses goblin workers too, perhaps apprenticeships for goblin girls and boys in the future. And a bigger house for them in a place where goblin inhabitants won't get beaten up" added Jade dryly. "As dad says, the only trouble with most kids is their parents. I loathe those people who care more about what the neighbours will think than the feelings of their own families. Anything else to report?"

"Torik has found you a replacement Hausmeister in the apartment he took over temporarily and the repairs are coming along well enough throughout the Berlin properties" said Ruprecht. "The priority, I thought, was the addition of hygiene facilities and running water; so that's what I've concentrated on. Likewise in Neubrandenburg and Kobboldsheim. I have had a team of English miners and engineers in Kobboldsheim, the mines have opened again, to the relief of the inhabitants. You may have been giving them relief while they could not work but they want to get back to work. I took the liberty of finding a half goblin from a free school in London, England, who has an apparating licence; they were impressed that a part goblin should be allowed to carry a wand. He has, I believe, three er, OWLs in Charms, Potions and Arithmancy on top of the new basic exam and a er NEWT in Arithmancy. He's learning engineering off his own bat; he was inspired to work harder by the example of the one who went to Hogwarts, who's a year younger than him, though I believe he stayed on an extra year to get a NEWT. His name's Oliver Tordak and there are some as disapprove of the mixing of human and goblin names."

"What, in Kobboldsheim?" asked Jade "They should be pleased to have a safety man at all so quickly!"

"No, not them; I've had a bit of a war with Lothar Schlange."

"DAMN that man; Ruprecht, find me another anwalt. I've had it with his whining. Will Oliver Tordak give basic lessons to the kids too?"

"He said he'd try but felt not entirely equal to the task. I figured the bright ones would pick a lot up anyway."

"He's a jewel to have if he's prepared to learn engineering too; I'll write to him and thank him for stepping in" said Jade. "Encouragement is always nice. I forgot to ask you to set up an owl loft there."

"I shan't be easily able to find anyone to run one; but I took it on myself to buy three owls and left them in the care of Herr Tordak" he grinned "The inhabitants were rather awed at me calling him 'Herr' too; and the way I got him to say he'd teach basics was by bribing him with being 'Herr Professor'."

Jade chuckled.

"Ah the snob value!" she said. "Why not though? He's been dirt poor; as safety officer and never mind his salary as part time professor he's probably earning twice what both his parents combined are, at least; or he should be if we're paying him his worth."

"I have not skimped" said Ruprecht "And I have raised wages of the goblins both at the mines and in the tannery. And a propos the tannery, I have seen that Herr Gerecht and his chief assistant have been instructed in the uses of modern tanning methods to decrease the evil odours. I, er…. I hope you won't think me presumptuous or too radical" he paused to glance at Jade "I heard a muggle tannery had closed and I managed to find a foreman and I, er, convinced him to work for you and er, showed him the wizarding world. I thought if he was a problem I might confund him and tinker with his memories; but he is er rather keen to know more."

"Good show" said Jade. "Has he children?"

"He- he's DIVORCED!" said Ruprecht "I hope I did not do wrong?"

"It's common enough for muggles" shrugged Jade. "Does he have children?"

"I don't think so" said Ruprecht.

"Find out; if he wishes they can go to the school in England that caters for the children of muggles who know; usually the untalented siblings of muggleborn wizards and witches" Jade explained. "Though if they don't live with him and are not themselves talented, perhaps it would be as well for them to continue in blissful ignorance. They might BE talented; I presume you picked one who can see goblins as goblins?"

"Yes, he is fascinated" said Ruprecht "Said he'd work for free to have the chance to see such wonders; but of course I am paying him. He is Herr Gerecht's other assistant now. His name is Herwald Braun; the goblin is Sigrik."

"Excellent. Keep your eyes open too for businesses to buy and improve; it is time to start making a difference" said Jade, and quickly filled Ruprecht in on the fields she was interested in. She also mentioned Von Frettchen's interest "So if you get to learn of anything he might be interested in for sale, send him an owl with my compliments" she added. Ruprecht, taking notes, nodded.

"And anything not on the list I think you'd be interested in?" he asked.

"Yes; use your judgement" said Jade. "Stay out of restaurants I think; or hotels. Well maybe gasthofen and bierhausen too but I'm not interested in food industries; you have to know more about it than I do. Potion ingredient shops possibly, or plant nurseries. Book shops; second hand shops. We need to invest to grow and to be better employers than there are right now. Find out too if there are any businesses that ARE fair employers, and if so, if they're struggling offer to invest. Keep notes of course if they are NOT struggling; they may then be people to cultivate socially. If you're in doubt about investing or how to pick what to buy, talk to Konal in England; he runs all my family's financial affairs. He's brilliant. Anything else?"

"No Frau Baronin; I have not completed all the tasks you set me but I am close and most is at least in train" said Ruprecht.

"You're doing a good job; I like your creativity in decision making. I look forward too to employing Gisela in a couple of years, if she is willing, as your assistant."

"I think she too looks forward to that" said Ruprecht "You are a hero for her."

Jade chuckled.

"She might have changed her mind had she been one of those dragged along as a field trip chasing a lich and inferii; though the older ones seemed to think it a nice break so I guess there's no accounting for kids. But then, we took fighting dark creatures and Odessa creeps in our stride. Keep your ear to the ground, won't you, of any community struck by a killer who kills by knife and the dead are exsanguinated? He has a magical knife, and though I think he is in Greece or Egypt it is worth listening."

"Did one of your class make this thing?" Ruprecht was shocked.

"No; he was awakened by the agency of the wicked uncle of a girl in the sixth. We took down the wicked uncle but we sort of lost the lich. He was too canny to hang about in one place for too long. What, did you think it was going to be nice and quiet with Odessa gone?"

"Actually, yes" said Ruprecht "I guess that was a bit optimistic, wasn't it?"

"'Fraid so" said Jade.

oOoOo

Jade was glad to have time to join her family for the rest of Yule, including going to a show with some very wickedly satirical parodies of society figures in the pantomime of Babbity Rabbit and her cackling stump. Characters NOT from the original story strode across the stage in outrageous interludes including Loosearse Madboy – a direct steal from Draco's name for Lucius in his Convolvumort sketches – fleeing from a new lover who he had planned to make his wife until he found out that SHE was a HE. The line 'Loosearse, oh Loosearse, come to my arms and widen the circle of your friends!' fortunately passed the children by, but made Severus splutter rather. That Loosearse was also fleeing from the season's beauty Morganatica Feykin was a little close to the knuckle too; Morgana Fairchild, who had left Prince Peak three summers previously had made a determined beeline for Lucius on more than one occasion. Jade rocked with laughter when Loosearse demanded of Morganatica if she would sleep with a man for a fine apartment, emeralds and a flying carriage; to which she had cooed an affirmative; then asked if she would sleep with a man for five sickles. 'Loosearse WHAT sort of woman do you think I am?' demanded Morganatica outraged. 'Oh we already established that" said Loosearse 'We were just haggling over the price!'.

"Got HER number" said Jade in satisfaction. "I say just LOOK at Uncle Lucius – he's going to wet himself if he laughs much more!"

As well as general time with the family, Jade gave some time to Silvina, who was very musically talented; and who had just been blooded in and adopted by Severus. Jade embraced her newest sister and listened to her plans to use music to work on a tune to resist the cruciatus curse or at least labour pains; the girl was ambitious but Jade had every respect for a remarkable talent and gave Silvina some of the pointers she had picked up herself to hopefully add to the girl's efforts. Silvina had come a long way; and now she had music AND a loving family was a different girl to the one Jade remembered who had first come to Prince Peak. No sullenness remained at all; and Jade reflected how much difference a little appreciation and the ability to let one's talents blossom made. Draco, Victor Crabbe, Jaromir Frolik, Takeo Namudzu to name but a few. And how many implacable foes in Odessa had they killed who had become bullying nasty racists for the want of a little joy in their lives in their youth? All she could do was to teach to the best of her ability and hope to find out why children were ill behaved and miserable and try to do something about it.

Well, she had nothing to do but to enjoy the rest of the holiday and pretend she knew nothing about Lilith and friends planning to irritate some wizard who had been particularly obnoxious to nieces and nephews who appeared to make up several layers of Hogwarts Marauders.

In the event, Jade and Wulf returned a day or two early since Jade knew that the Eulenspiegel twins were to be returned early to the castle to fit in with their parents' plans and as Jade said, it would be nice to get back to find a castle to return to, as the Eulenspiegels were quite capable of bringing it down about the ears of all within. Wulf had laughed; but agreed!

oOoOo

Sigismund was back early too; he had come with Agata and had enjoyed a family Christmas with her staying with his family; Attila had spent some of Christmas with his older son but had spent Christmas day with Zoltan, trying to find some rapport. By his face as he returned to school it had not gone badly.

"Dad?" asked Sigismund.

Attila ruffled his hair.

"Only a few minor arguments" he answered the unspoken question "I told Zoltan that a chanting teacher was to be engaged from next year who would also teach music as an extra curricula subject as there were others in the school wanting to learn music for pleasure and to use in magic. You'd have thought I'd given him the best Christmas present ever! And by the time he'd waxed excited to Nóra, my wife, she could hardly find a way to forbid it without it being more a blow to him than to me. And THAT would show me in a good light to the boy and her in a bad one, so she contented herself with saying that she hoped I really knew what I was talking about and that Zoltan would not be let down if I was mistaken. I kept my temper" he added, and Sigismund saw him shaking still with the memory of the effort that cost him. "And I said that the young man concerned had been studying further since he left school to enable him to give his best to the school when he returned to teach and that he certainly intended doing so; unless such unforeseen accidents as being eaten by a dragon intervened. HOW I hate the way she uses him!"

"Well while he's at school she can't" said Sigismund "And we'll look out for him; and he'll learn about you as a person because then it's YOU who will see him every day and she won't be able to poison his mind between you seeing him."

Attila brightened.

"There is that" he said. "I managed to extract him to take him to a concert too; I didn't enjoy it much but Zoltan did and that's what counts. You're an inspiration my boy to try to know BOTH my sons. I hope you'll get on!"

"Oh I'm sure we will" comforted Sigismund, determined to get on with his half brother. Dad Attila might not be much of a father but he was still his father; if not as close as his dad at home. And poor Zoltan didn't have a dad at all most of the time; for someone who had two mothers and two fathers – even if one pair was a relatively recent acquisition in the role – it seemed selfish not to go out of the way for a boy with a mostly absent dad and a rather silly and nasty sounding mum. Sigismund reflected that even so he probably loved her because she WAS his mum and he didn't know any better. Poor Zoltan! With luck he'd enjoy being drawn in to maraud; but if he did not, they could at least look out for him!


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

Term began with blinding sun on the white blanket of snow and there was as much outdoor activity as school work permitted. Jade took all her classes outside to show them how innocuous spells might be used to cause dark effects, telling them to make snowmen which she then animated with _inanimatus conjuratus_ and using the proper spell for the job not the muggle film incantation favoured by the Hogwarts children. With a quick _duro_ she turned one of the snowmen to stone to demonstrate how fearsome stone golem monsters might be made so simply. Then she let the children practise their jinxes on the stone and snow monsters that she set to attack them, since they did not need to hold back on essentially mindless monsters.

A good time was had by most, though Osburga Sternkessel of the first moaned about having to be outside on a cold day and her sister Kunegunda in the second made hardly less fuss.

There was some teasing in the staffroom after the first lesson on these lines.

"What, couldn't resist playing with snowmen?" said Ihor.

"Not when I can think of a valid excuse to do so" said Jade "Fresh air and exercise is good for them; the classroom was fuggy; and the sun shone invitingly. Wait until I have ski-ing stone golems to menace the Sixth; that should prove a challenge to them."

"Makes me wish I could think of an excuse too" said Agalisse Schreiber.

"Oh that's easy; have them inscribe ancient runes in the snow in a heating spell and watch it melt in circles" said Jade. "It hardly takes much of a chant to do something that easy."

"That's not such a bad idea" said Agalisse.

"And I could teach the senior classes _inanimatus conjuratus_ with their own snowmen" said Attila. "Thank you Jade; you do enliven up the place."

"She's slightly insane that's why" said Ihor.

"We English prefer to call it eccentric" said Jade demurely.

oOoOo

The first mischief of the term was caused by the third. Or rather, it was caused by one of the girls' dormitories of the third.

Grishilde Stengel had complained about a lumpy mattress and Wencelada giggled and suggested jumping up and down on it; which she promptly went to help her blood sibling with. They were having such fun – and visibly so – that Diliana Zhikova and even Hortensia Slukstrup, normally a quarrelsome girl, came to join in; until with an awful SPANG! Noise the protesting bed failed catastrophically.

It was their bad luck – or possibly good luck – that Jade happened to be passing and heard sounds of mechanical protestation and four little shrieks. She went into the dormitory.

"WHAT is going on here?" she asked of the bundle of girls in a rather dishevelled bed.

"Oh please, Frau Von Luytens, it was my fault" said Wencelada "Because I suggested jumping up and down on the lumps in Grishilde's bed."

"Well if you have all been jumping up and down on the lumps in Grishilde's bed I should rather say it was a collective effort of the breaking of it" said Jade "Heave the mattress off my good brats and let's see what the damage is."

Getting the mattress off was easier said than done and Jade had to intervene to stop them from enthusiastically letting it rip open to let out the spring that had gone up into it.

"Goodness!" said Grishilde putting her finger in the spring "It's spoinged!"

"With this spring I thee bed" murmured Jade in English "And that doesn't work as a horrible pun in German. I suspect" she added as she returned to German "That the spring was already weak that it caused your mattress to seem lumpy, Grishilde; it must be replaced. So tonight you must needs sleep at the opposite end of Wencelada's bed as she was the author of this silliness and hope not to kick each other too much; and you may all write for me the entire of 'for the want of a nail' um, let me see, five times to remind you that all actions have consequences and that school property should be treated with some respect; its ill treatment makes it more rapidly decrepit which is why too professors look old before their time for being subject to the multiple abuse of assorted and successive middle school brats."

"Sorry Frau Von Luytens" said Wencelada and the rest echoed her, even the often truculent Hortensia.

"Well if you think you got of lightly you did" said Jade "Because I still recall being young enough to enjoy bouncing on beds; but generally speaking, four big girls on one single bed is not conducive to its well being. Try to go to sleep and I'll see about having the spring replaced. Really, we could do with a goblin handyman who understands metalwork and such!" she added.

Fortunately there were spare bed bases and on the morrow Grishilde's bed received a new base fitted by the castle elves; and the old one sent for repair.

As Jade felt that the spring had been close to failing anyhow she interceded on the part of the four with Agata who had been inclined to dock their pocket money to pay for it; but Agata insisted on letting the four know that it was only Frau Von Luytens belief that they were only partly to blame for the accident that they did NOT find themselves out of pocket and that she was inclined to leniency.

Particularly as Jade had made her laugh by saying that Spring had come a little early to that dormitory.

oOoOo

Jade was prowling that night because Anastasia Strong had been having practice contractions with her pregnancy; and Jade fully intended to be on hand to officiate. Anastasia was nervous about going through the whole business again with her daughter a grown woman – indeed she had been herself to be with Cynthia when Cynthia's baby had been born in November, a healthy boy that she and Callum named Severin Sirius, partly after Callum's cousin, but with a mind to the fact that there were already a goodly pile of Severuses about; and after Sirius whose prompt actions had once saved Anastasia after Callum had had a vision concerning her. There would already be a Severus Prince in that year, son of Alexander Chang Prince; and Albus Severus Potter too. And Cynthia declared that as her Callum had a son he could be content with that because apart from not being the maternal type she was NOT going through that again, repeat NOT.

As Callum had fretted himself half into a fever over the whole business – even though he had brewed some very competent birth aiding potions – he agreed fervently.

All of which had left Anastasia decidedly nervous and muttering about being an older mother, not having the advantage of being a witch to extend her lifespan. Jade had told her it was nonsense and all she and Kathleen needed were some good potions. Kathleen was not due until after the end of term, having taken longer to fall pregnant; but she was less of a worrier than Anastasia anyway.

It was another week round before an elf came for Jade to say that the English wife of Professor Carcano was asking for her; and Jade, with her extremely competent birthing potions, went to help out.

Between potions and easing spells, Jade managed to keep Anastasia reasonably comfortable; for which Kathleen was a great help too. Orlando Carcano, who had never been a father before, got under foot and Jade told him severely to emulate the stallion of the unicorn herd and stay the hell out of the way of the women. She set him to brew endless cups of coffee. And Jade, being Jade, played her flute which had both easing and pain reducing charms in the music, and a ruthless soothing charm to the strength, as Jade described it later, of about a ton of prozac.

The baby had green eyes and a tuft of red hair; it was a little girl and Anastasia cuddled her happily.

"We thought to call the first daughter 'Jadeita' which is Spanish for 'Jade'" said Orlando "Because you have been a good friend and brought about our meeting; and I think you expected this love to grow."

"I cannot tell a lie" said Jade "Though no cherry trees were harmed in the plotting of this ménage; sorry, a muggle history reference. I am honoured and touched; and I hope she grows up as happy as I am."

"Will you be her godmother?" asked Anastasia.

"I'd be delighted" said Jade, grinning happily and kissing her goddaughter. "Don't let her try to ride dragons and unicorns before she's even walking."

Orlando roared with laughter!

oOoOo

January howled its blizzardous way into February and Valentines day approached with its usual morbid inevitability. Jade coming into the Dark Arts classroom for a lesson with the lower sixth hearing Takeo Namudzu waxing lyrical about the charms of Everilda Widder set the rest of the class an impromptu essay test on curses and their counters and took the Japanese boy to the potions dungeon to ask if Ihor Rebet had any Liberamore Major potion available.

When Takeo had swallowed the dose – being in the habit of obedience to Jade – he blinked several times and bit off an oath.

"I've been poisoned by the Widder girl!" he exclaimed.

"Yes; and you're going to leave it to ME to discipline her and not take it into your own hands" said Jade firmly.

Takeo looked briefly mutinous, then nodded and bowed formally.

"As you order, Frau Von Luytens" he said.

They returned to the class.

"Please complete what you can of the test in the ten more minutes I shall allow for it, Herr Namudzu" said Jade "I shall grade you by the percentage of time you have had for it."

Takeo set to scribbling furiously; and Jade timed ten minutes more and set Zhanargul to gather up the papers of the class.

"I shall be studying your knowledge of curses to see how far I can go with you in using ritual magic as a group" said Jade. "This will cover things like exclusion lines, a mild and yet very powerful form of curse; and such things as the engulfing charm as is used on the doors of many banks to trap would-be thieves within the vault. We will look at alternate ways to undertake such powerful curses as would be easy to perform with a chant even by a lone witch or wizard but that may be duplicated in effect by the pooling of power."

"One can pool power without using blood magic then?" asked Takeo.

"Oh yes; it is the usual way to do it" said Jade. "It is less EFFECTIVE than if undertaken by a blood joined group; but so long as the correct ritual is undertaken and nobody louses up their wand work the wands of all wizards in a group focus on a point and become the sum of the abilities of the wizards involved."

"What happens if they are blood joined?" asked Takeo.

"It's closer to the product of the power; that their efforts multiply each other" said Jade "It's not quite that powerful, there's a complex bit of Arithmancy to calculate an approximation, but it IS only an approximation because the desire to co-operate, the level of love if you will, between the participants adds significantly but incalculably. Blood magic can't be quantified very easily. Equally, a blood group could be represented by one of its members pulling off the ritual alone but with the power of all concentrated through him or her. It runs outside normal effective calculation. When you are the focus of such you KNOW you can pull the tops of mountains and hurl them for miles. Which would be a singularly futile exercise I know; but it gives you some idea. All right, homework, I want you to look up ritual magic and make brief notes on the chapter, it's chapter seventeen on page one hundred and seventy four; write down what YOU think is most relevant and we'll have class discussion and debate and maybe get as far as a practical next time. Fraulein Nurtazin, will you see Fraulein Widder at all this morning?"

"Yes Frau Professor; we are together next in Charms" said Zhanargul.

"Good; you will perhaps pass to her this letter" said Jade, handing Zhanargul a folded and sealed piece of paper as the bell went.

The class went out discussing the cruelty of setting tests in the middle of term, and deciding that as Takeo had been dragged off for mooning about Widder and now was not, it was probably HER fault and the letter was not one any of them would like to receive!

oOoOo

Everilda Widder stood before Frau Professor Von Luytens looking mutinous.

"Do you know why I have sent for you Fraulein Widder?" asked Jade. Widder shrugged.

"Because I gave Takeo a love potion?" she guessed.

"Yes; because you poisoned Herr Namudzu" said Jade.

"I didn't poison him; I only gave him a love potion. He's good looking. Is it that you are angry because you want to keep him for yourself?"

Jade stared.

"Now THAT, my child, is the outside of rudeness; to suggest I should behave improperly with a pupil, and moreover one who is a minor. You are WAY out of line. I am, let me remind you, a respectably married woman and would not consider dallying with a scrubby schoolboy even if I were not. I will consider what to do about that piece of impudence in a minute. Meanwhile, you appear to be ignoring the fact that so-called love potions are forbidden in school; and that you have also had the cheek to interfere with my class by turning the brains of one of my pupils temporarily to semi-digested bran and so making me interrupt my pearls of wisdom to find him an antidote; necessitating interrupting Herr Rebet's class also. You have disrupted two classes of ZH level students effectively thieving time from other students; as well as egregiously breaking school rules. If this came to the Head's ears you'd be in line for possible expulsion. Do you care to explain yourself before I set punishment?"

"Well everyone does it" said Widder.

"Actually, Fraulein, that is NOT correct" said Jade witheringly "Only the sick brained and inadequate individuals who cannot think of any other way of getting a friendship with any boy comes up with so puerile and false a means to inspire a travesty of affection. That you are a sad, lonely little creep does NOT give you the right to mess with another pupil's head and disrupt the classes he attends thereby nor cause Professor Rebet extra work. So-called love potions are no such thing; they induce a false infatuation only and are nothing to do with love either on the part of the infatuated OR on the part of the poisoner, who would not wish to cause the psychological damage these things can cause if she – it's almost always a she – truly loved the object of her misplaced lusts. If you're that sad and lonely you should learn to masturbate; at least then you'll be having sex with the one person who loves you. I see NO remorse in your face or shock over the possibility of psychological trauma being caused by your actions – you're lucky, I got an antidote for Herr Namudzu before he made too much of a fool of himself – and it seems to me that as you are so interested in dippy potions you should spend an hour every night until the end of term helping Professor Rebet prepare ingredients for the antidotes to the said dippy potions. I or another will be your chaperone in case you take it into your silly head to throw yourself bodily on poor Professor Rebet. Now, for the disruption to my class and your intolerable rudeness to me you will also write me five hundred lines – I added four hundred for the rudeness - 'I should not irritate someone who knows as much about the Dark Arts as Frau Luytens' and you will report to the detention room every Sunday afternoon until you have completed them. Which SHOULD erode your free time enough not to engage in such childish shenanigans again."

"That's not FAIR! It's too harsh!" cried Widder.

"You'd prefer expulsion by having it go to the head for arbitration?" asked Jade. "We can do that now if you prefer; I warn you, for using love potions, you would not be accepted by either Hogwarts or Prince Peak to complete your education. I don't know how lenient they are over terminally dippy behaviour at Beauxbatons. Or will you accept what I have set you?"

"I don't want to be expelled" said Widder sulkily "I suppose I don't have a choice."

"No my child, you do not; and are lucky that I am easy going enough not to bawl you out further and add to your lines for your rudely ungracious behaviour" said Jade. "Now get out; you can report to Professor Rebet first and do your homework after. He doesn't want to waste his evening with a rude little girl."

Everilda Widder stumbled out, seething and frightened; Frau Luytens could make her do the punishment if she tried to refuse it, as that sentence she was to write five hundred times reminded her; and she would rather not be writing it in the form of something unnatural!

oOoOo

Jade was glad that the fourteenth of February fell on a Wednesday; less time for silliness than when it came at the weekend. She kept her own pupils' noses firmly to the grindstone and refused to be diverted by questions about how she and her husband would celebrate the date with an airy comment of 'the same way we celebrate our anniversaries, now get out your textbooks and turn to page…' adding whichever page was appropriate and starting the lesson with firmness. She also pretended not to hear when the second Durmstrang Marauders in the second year were whispering about the silly valentines they had sent to the girls in the upper sixth; most of whom deserved silly valentines. She had heard enough to discover that nothing cruel had been sent; she had heard about the nasty Valentine that had been sent to Madam Hardbroom and would jump on anything that extreme. Merely sending cards signed 'a troll with more sentiment than discernment' was probably all right, though she did mention in the second year class as a general comment that it was possible to take japes against the big people who took Valentines moderately seriously too far if silly messages edged over into the cruel, however much one might not like them. The Second Marauders looked thoughtful and had a lot of soul searching and discussion before deciding that they had not been cruel.

As Erzebet Czerny had declared that if she ever found out which of the brats had sent her a card purporting to be from a troll she'd twist their arms so hard they would not write anything for a month, the effect had been at the level presumably desired, that of nuisance level. And Jade went up to Czerny and said,

"Appreciating your irritation over a practical joke I DO hope you were exaggerating; actual bodily harm as retaliation for childishness is both extreme and liable to land you in hot water; not merely from the Vehmgerichten called in by the parents of children assaulted by an ADULT but also from those professors who will take a dim view of any of their pupils being rendered unable to do any work for a month. Try to take the crap these brats hand out with some measure of dignity as befits a girl just turned eighteen, Fraulein Czerny."

Erzebet Czerny bit off a sarcastic comment; she had defied Frau Von Luytens to leave her class and study alone but she had heard enough about what Frau Von Luytens had done when she was still Nefrita Von Strang and she knew enough to realise that Jade's abilities were well above hers and to consequently fear her.

"Did you get a card from those meddlesome brats, Frau Von Luytens?" she asked.

Jade laughed.

"Yes, an invitation to dinner with a werewolf" she said. "I decided to decline by ignoring it; it IS the most civilised and dignified thing to do. They are too young for romance themselves and so find the idea of a day dedicated to romance to be risible and worth disrupting. They too will have their share of foolish valentines sent to them by their youngers I have no doubt when they are older; what goes around comes around."

Jade had received a card from the second marauders; a more carefully worded one than to those they disliked and with tongues firmly in cheeks, knowing that Wulf had been a werewolf once and that Jade would appreciate the spirit in which it was sent.

And to make sure that Czerny did not have a chance to get any of the first or second alone to question, Jade organised a Valentines party for them, with heart shaped iced biscuits and red jelly marked 'semi-congealed heart's blood' to appeal to the gruesome tastes of small people; and had bought small gifts for all, that were left, after a loud knock, anonymously outside the door.

The lower two years had an uproarious time, with party games as well as party food and gifts and went to bed to sleep the sleep of the exhausted and utterly unable to awaken to pull any half formed japes on older couples. Which had also been the general idea.

oOoOo

After the middle of February the weather improved markedly, and the snow melted, taking with it such snowman monsters as had not been destroyed by the Dark Arts classes. Only the upper torso and one arm and head of one that had been turned to stone remained, down by the edge of the lake, flailing towards anyone who approached with its single limb and gnashing its stone teeth. Jade considered destroying it and decided against it; schools of magic were supposed to have random weird denizens. And it could not harm anyone providing they stayed out of reach. The lower forms promptly dubbed the monster 'Gerhardt' and as Jade said in the staffroom a bit unfair to the poor golem as it was infinitely cleverer and better looking than the self styled prince of Odessa.

Jade was teaching the Abraham's Eye curse to the third, feeling it suitable for their age group and a useful curse to know, to strike a thief blind; when a frantic whinnying outside caught her attention. She went to the window to look out; and there was the unicorn mare in great distress, plainly seeking someone.

And the someone was probably her.

"Class, finish taking down the notes on this spell from the board and read chapter five on exclusion charms and curses, and if you finish before the bell, you may start your preparation which will be eight inches on anti intruder and anti theft curses and charms" said Jade calmly; and apparated smoothly onto the unicorn's back.

The mare bucked briefly, then smelled Jade's scent and whickered gently before heading off towards the forest at speed.

Jade might wish she had taken the trouble to be a more accomplished rider; she loved magical horses but there had always been other priorities, and this was a field in which her sister Lydia surpassed her. She hung on to the mare's mane and concentrated on the rapport they had formed that helped her stay on bareback at such a breakneck speed.

She was glad of the speed when the mare thundered into a clearing and pulled up short; Jade almost fell off but managed a slightly more dignified dismount than over the mare's neck where she had bowed her head to muzzle at one of her foals. The other cried faintly from nearby. And they were only just in time.

The prone foal was a terrible colour, more brown than gold; and barely alive. There was a bad wound at the neck; and only the innate curative properties of unicorn blood had left the poor thing alive; and by the scars on the mare's chest she had bitten into her own flesh to drip her own curing blood into her foal's mouth, else the terrible, cursed wound would have killed it long since.

Jade began a chant and drew on all the blooded in Durmstrang, and all her friends from the previous year's ZH classes; no need to involve the whole blood group, this was a Durmstrang problem. It was right and proper that each group should sort its own problems unless they were in need of more than could be thus mustered; and Jade knew she could do this without involving the whole blood group.

It might have been nice to have had Sigismund and his group as well but unless necessary they had no need to learn about the more serious aspects of Marauding just yet.

The mare dropped a velvet nose briefly onto Jade's shoulder; and Jade leaned back. It was all the communication they needed. The mare trusted Jade, and Jade did not plan to do anything to betray that trust.

Gradually, the golden sheen on the foal's coat started to return; gradually strength filled her tiny body and she quivered and lifted her head. Jade stroked her as she continued chanting, drawing strength from nature around her as well as from those blood joined to her; and then the foal was rising, her legs almost as wobbly as when she was first born. And Jade continued chanting until those legs were as sturdy as the foal's twin brother. They were almost yearlings now, coltish and playful for the most part, now sobered with the terror of what had happened; and Jade caught the head of the young filly to gaze into her big liquid eyes to find out what had occurred.

oOoOo

Back in school, Jade called an urgent meeting of Zhanargul and such fags as were part of Zhanargul's bodyguard and the rest of the Five and Kjell and the first Durmstrang Marauders, because it was easier than going over it again,as well as Agata, Ihor and Orlando, in addition to Wulf.

She also called in Lazlo and Clovis.

"We have had a visit from the lich" said Jade without preamble "Or so I assume; he's wearing a transfigured form to look fully human, the way Voldemort sometimes did, but the clothes were distinctly Scythian as it's what he feels comfortable in. He used his cursed knife on one of the unicorn foals to get a real buzz of life force; he got run off before the foal died, by the mare and the stallion and sundry other unicorns" she paused for the collected gasp of horror to die down; the shock that anyone would harm a unicorn was considerable, even in a place used to callous values like Durmstrang. Jade went on, "The mare sought me out and I managed to chant the cursed wound closed, even unicorn blood wasn't enough to overcome it – at least, on a foal. And I wouldn't mind betting such an item would work on a full grown unicorn too. It seems that he makes a mortal, but not immediately fatal, wound to drain the essence of the victim relatively gradually for his own best succour; and I imagine he got a hell of a hit off a young unicorn filly. Naturally the herd does not know what he was up to, but I got the impression from them that he was undertaking some kind of reconnaissance. He acquired from the thoughts of Tulegen Nurtazin the information that there is a school for wizards and witches where his niece studies and probably wanted to check it out. And though he's used to the cold on the steppes, the snowy winters of northern Germany would be something outside his experience so he waited for more clement weather. He may have summoned fey spirits to scout ahead and found they bounced off my wall; and what I do NOT know is whether his curiosity was general, to acquaint himself with the way learning is passed nowadays; or whether he takes a personal interest in Zhanargul with a view to forcibly marrying her and thus ruling as her husband and so acquiring himself a power base. He's probably already discovered that the school is an anti apparating zone too."

"Not that such seems to trouble YOU" said Agata.

"No; but then I am extraordinarily powerful" said Jade. "I also use different arithmantic algorithms to do my apparating."

"It's a Marauder thing" said Sofie brightly.

"What do we do?" asked Agata.

"We go on watch?" suggested Lazlo.

"Can't hurt" said Jade "I thought I might turn the egophonic spell inside out and talk at him; remind him that once he was well respected and see if he hasn't got a better nature to appeal to; and failing that try to scare him."

"I haven't a clue what spell you're talking about dear" said Agata in a brittle tone.

"Oh, didn't you realise that was how Voldemort could hear people saying his name?" said Jade "It's a spell that alerts you to others saying your own name. It's how I got there in time to save Elfleda. It's why naming baddies is such a bad idea and why we're not saying the name of our Scythian enemy; until such time as we're ready to, as you might say, scratch one lich."

"She gets worse" said Clovis.

"But talking at him might help" said Lazlo "If anyone can talk the hind leg of a lich then persuade him to get up and go for a walk after, it's our Jade; look how much she talked us into."

"A point" said Clovis.

Beremud was busy asking Sofie how apparating inside anti apparating zones was a marauder thing, whether she could do it and how did they learn; and Sofie was telling him loftily that when they were invited to be proper marauders they would gain an innate knowledge of how to do it.

"You mean YOU do blood magic too?" said Sigismund too loudly.

Everyone looked at him.

"Brats" said Jade "We included you because two of you are in Zhanargul's bodyguard; and the rest are inseparable like the other heads of a many headed and mutable monster. Actually, if this ruddy lich is going to be trouble maybe it IS time to bring them in."

"Are you actually planning on making my er nephew part of a blood ritual?" demanded Agata.

"Oh he already went ahead to found a blood ritual of his own; to protect his little brother when he gets here" said Jade "Very laudable. Agata, you must surely have guessed that it's all a part of marauding?"

"But he's so YOUNG! They all are!" added Agata belatedly.

"Your son – no secrets between marauders – is a fine young man and considerably older than I was when I joined the pact with Harry Potter" said Jade. "And no time like the present; do the non blood joined mind? If so we'll retire elsewhere. If not, Ihor, perhaps you'll make coffee. I have every expectation that a feisty child as you describe your stepdaughter to be will end up as a marauder in Prince Peak and you may as well know what it stands for; Orlando, your step son and step daughter are part of the other blood group and their son born into it. They've supported us in many ways and will be part of a massive chant we'll all be doing next Yule" she explained as all the other blood joined of Durmstrang filed into the office at her blood pulse.

"I for one am fascinated though I think I should not want to be a part of it" said Orlando.

"One might guess the source of the power of those who suddenly grow in ability if one has read Professor Snape's book; I am not surprised" said Ihor "I will make coffee. I understand the English look on cocoa as a necessary part of the ritual."

"Yes; but here coffee is more readily available" said Jade "In America I guess one would compromise and have mocha."

Agata opened her mouth, thought better of protesting and sighed.

"So long as the youngsters know what they are getting into" she said.

"Trouble" said Sigismund succinctly "It's what we're not yet paid for."

"Essentially true enough" said Jade "And it protects them too; though any one of them can find any other of them it would be handy if they get involved in doing things I haven't actually thought of expressly forbidding and need to have their tails hauled out of trouble."

Five little boys looked duly reproachful. It was de rigeur.

Palms were slit and the five youngsters were brought in; and the looks of wonder on their faces as they sensed how many other souls were now their kindred was a joy.

_**ssss**__We be of one blood, ye and I!__**ssss**_ they all hissed happily.

"We are blood joined with goblins and elves?" said Beremud, grinning at Fyra and Alrik.

"Assuredly; those who have fought dark wizards beside us are all our kin" said Jade.

"It does make a difference to one's perceptions" said Corneliu. "Now I have more knowledge over how to use my music too."

"And you will all be able to add counterpoints to chanting more readily in an emergency" said Jade "As the blood joined of the third startled the rest of the class while I worked on the unicorn foal to heal it by adding their own chant to back me."

"We just tapped under the desks for rhythm" said Elfleda.

"We ARE part of something rather big" said Beremud.

"Where the Parselmouths among us are accepted" said Lindhard in satisfaction.

"Where we're all accepted no matter who or what we are for our beliefs and for doing what we do" said Jade softly.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

Jade picked ancient Greek to address the lich; it was a language he would know. She cast a twisted version of the egophonic spell.

"Abaris, once you were a greatly respected man, a scholar and a healer. Such that, two thousand years later, your name is used as synonymous with study; there is at least one Abaris society" she said "You were angry that you received insufficient recognition; insufficient public adulation. I can understand that. But what you have become is an abomination and you are NOT going to rule. We have learned much as a society in two thousand years; and there are those of us who have dedicated our lives to fighting the dark wizards who have tried to be tyrants over the last couple of generations. I have personally killed one of them. Abaris, you should be aware that this is NOT your time. This is NOT what we will permit. Draining the life of any, muggles, goblins or unicorns is not what we will let you get away with. Destroy your knife and take your own half life of undeath to go beyond the veil; for if you do not we WILL hunt you down. Die in peace, Abaris; you have been warned. I am Jade Snape Von Luytens and I am one of those who bears the zig zag scar that shows those of us who have bounced the killing curse."

She got no impressions from the lich; but then she did not expect to do so. It was in no wise a telepathy spell, and such Jade could not cast without knowing Abaris. She had to take it on faith that her skill was such that he had got the message; and be content that she had no way of knowing if he had, and if so what his reaction might be. With the reference to the unicorn he might realise that she was associated with the school and enter a wizarding community and send an owl to her if he wanted to communicate; it would be what she would do in his shoes, just out of sheer curiosity. After all, it must be a shock to hear her casually mention bouncing the killing curse; and though it was no guarantee to him with her using such a method to communicate that she was speaking truth one might hope that he would be intrigued.

And she must put the whole business behind her and get on with teaching.

Not to mention nursing a sick unicorn foal; she had brought the little animal back to the castle – with the mare's wary acceptance – to keep an eye on and see that no curse remained. She had a surprising volunteer helper in Frieda Verwirremann, who was generally best described as dim; but as Orlando had praised her practical ability with magical beasts and said she had a touch with unicorns, Jade shooed away all her normal satellites and permitted Frieda to aid her. The child needed SOMETHING positive to take away from her school experience.

"Please Frau Von Luytens, is it true what they say, that someone wounded the foal deliberately?" asked Frieda softly as she petted the filly.

"Yes my dear; and if you are going to ask what sort of person would do that, I can answer a very wicked one; such a person as I have spoken of in Dark Arts who has permitted himself to become ruled by the dark arts he follows until all his soul is consumed and all that is left is selfish desire and a failure to realise that such consumes from within."

"I don't really understand" said Frieda. "But then I don't understand a lot of what any professors say."

"My poor child, you'd get a lot further if you'd only ASK when you don't understand; not necessarily in class, because with a lot of lessons to get through there won't always be time to go through a point most others may have got; but after school, when you're doing your homework. Some Professors will be better about it than others; and I know some, like Professor Nagy, can be a little loud and scary but if you genuinely want to understand most professors will go to infinite lengths to help you. Let me explain what I mean; have you ever kept it a secret that you have sweeties and not shared them, perhaps if people have teased you about not doing well in class?"

Frieda nodded.

"Yes ma'am" she said.

"And at first I expect you felt pleased that you had something the mean people didn't; but your conscience smote you and you felt mean yourself, didn't you?"

Frieda nodded.

"How did you know?" she asked.

"Understanding how people think is a part of my job; as a professor and as someone who fights dark wizards" said Jade. "Now you're a nice kid; sometimes I despair of getting you through the ZP but you're a nice kid, and therefore preferable to a really clever kid who's a little shit – oops, sorry, not supposed to swear in front of you kids!" Frieda looked scandalised and gave a nervous giggle. Jade went on, "Now someone not so nice gets the buzz of satisfaction out of having something the ones who put him down have not got; but either he doesn't feel his conscience prick him or he deliberately chooses to ignore it. And in ignoring that he actually starts to damage his soul, because he's damaging his sense of right and wrong and so damaging – ultimately – his sense of self worth. Which he doesn't realise, because he thinks his cleverness in hiding something is his sense of self worth. The next step is to try to get sweeties out of others – by theft, or by persuading them to give them up, perhaps by threatening to tell teachers about some misdeed. And gradually all he thinks about is doing down others to make himself feel clever, not realising that he's a sneak thief and a blackmailer and really rather low. Dark wizards are like that only its about bigger things than sweeties. The creature who did this has a cursed knife; it drains life force from a living being and he consumes it; because his body has died once and is kept sustained by the life from others. He's what we call a lich. It's stealing sweeties on a really grand and nasty scale, stealing life force for his own cursed half life. He's already killed an elf and a heap of muggles; and one day, when I catch him, I'm going to kill him for good and all and destroy his nasty knife. Trouble is, finding him. He's BEEN here – and hurt Goldmund here – out of curiosity."

"Is he anything to do with the chanting thing you did that made Frau Meyer have a fit and leave?" asked Frieda.

"That's a bit complex. We did that because of a dark magician who could summon the fey; and who decided in his infinite lack of wisdom – er, in stupidity – to wake up this ruddy lich" said Jade "The original dark wizard is now in Nurmengard; long may he rot there. He – and we – lost his lich. And I've never SEEN the lich or I could chance some finding spells, but he had left the place we thought he was and there were enough inferii we had to burn them; so there was precious little to link to a finding spell. We did a ritual to find the wizard – he being Zhanargul Nurtazin's wicked uncle – so HE was easy; only the lich had beaten him up and gone on a killing spree to pastures new, and there are so many muggles in the world that if he's in any crowded and poverty stricken neighbourhood, the chances of any muggle vehmgerichten actually mentioning it anywhere we can find out is pretty low. There are people out there talking to muggles to see what they can dredge up; he's canny enough to stick to killing muggles, poor devils, at least so far. Life force is life force. I believe that he came here to poke around and could not resist the temptation when he came upon Goldmund to enhance his hold on life with unicorn blood. It may make him not have to kill for a longer period. Maybe he's still lurking; while the weather's a bit uncertain we haven't had to ban excursions into the forest but it may come to that. You are very good with animals, Frieda; are you hoping to work with them?"

"I'd like to be an animal healer but you need transfigurations for that. And I have such a lot of difficulty understanding the explanations of definitions and things. And it's a bit too late to hope to improve even if people WILL help me" she sighed.

"Well maybe not. If you concentrate on Animal Care and Transfigurations, even if you only get two good ZPs that's better than nothing, isn't it?" said Jade "And I shall send to England for the revision notes in rhyme that some English Marauders wrote to help their friends and translate them for you. Like 'a switching spell, without any bother, works very well swapping one thing with another'" she said.

"Oh if only all the rules were that easy!" cried Frieda "I've never been sure if it switched one thing for another or if it turned an effect on or off!"

"Hang on, do you have difficulty reading the definitions in the book and notes on the blackboard?" asked Jade. Frieda hung her head.

"Yes" she whispered.

"Well THAT's easy to fix" said Jade "Common and simple complaint called dyslexia."

Frieda was a bit dim as well, but if she had trouble reading definitions in the first place, no wonder they did not go in. It would explain the excruciating spelling too. Jade laid a light hand on the child's head and plunged her healing thoughts in.

It was not quite that simple; there was clear evidence of brain damage. Still, it created a dyslexia like effect and if she could clear that up it would help at least.

"You were hurt on the head as a baby" said Jade "Possibly while you were being born."

"Yes; mummy nearly died and I had to be medically apparated" said Frieda "And by the time it was done they thought I might have died. They said I'm slow because I wasn't breathing for a while."

"It would have been nice" said Jade with some asperity "If your professors had been told this so we knew to give you extra help. And frankly, if I were your parents I'd see if I couldn't send you to Prince Peak to try for NEWTs – English ZH's – or to take a few more ZP equivalents in a small school for pupils with special needs, whether that's those who are geniuses or those who have a medical problem. I'll write to them if you like; you're a nice kid and great with animals and I'd like to see you do as well as you are able. Which in big classes of thirty and more just isn't possible. How much nicer would it be to be in classes of no more than a dozen kids? And professors aware you have a problem and willing to help with it? I can't fix the problem – and I HATE saying that because I rarely run across a problem I can't fix – but you should find reading a little easier now. That one I CAN sort."

"Oh THANK you Frau Von Luytens; and for explaining, and for believing I can pass two ZPs at least!" said Frieda.

"There now! I shall speak to Herr Carcano and Herr Nagy and ask them to help you out; and I will tell Madam Bacsó that I am going to excuse you Dark Arts – not exclude, but excuse – so you may work harder on the things that interest you more. And you may bring your transfiguration or care of beasts homework to the classroom with the rest and if you need help, providing it does not interfere with my teaching the rest of the class I will help you. If we can get you through charms as well that too would be very good; and I know Professor Rebet wishes to enlighten you with potions. It is so easy to panic in potions classes and perform poorly simply because the panic stops you thinking straight; and if Professor Rebet assures you that he will not be angry as this blockage is not your fault, you won't be so likely to panic, will you?"

Jade was flung upon and hugged and sobbed over, great girl of fifteen though Frieda was; and she had to shush the girl so she did not frighten the foal, a big incentive to Frieda to get herself under control!

Jade went to write straight away to Frieda's parents; who knew WHAT they could be thinking of not to let anyone know, for as Frieda had been the subject of discussion in the staffroom one might have thought that Agata would have mentioned it if she had been told! And yet perhaps they feared that at Durmstrang the child might be bullied if she was officially brain damaged – she had been bullied anyway of course – and made to feel different. Sometimes good intentions really did pave the way to hell.

Jade also wrote to her father and told him firmly that he would find a place for poor Frieda. She would at least be in the same class as the last remaining Cackle girls and the Muggle Marauders; it was not a class of high flying academics.

And then she went to talk to Agata.

Agata was shocked; she had been told nothing of the child's condition.

"What do you advise?" she asked.

"She's taking only the basic compulsory classes and care of beasts at the moment; Charms, Transfigurations, Potions, Dark Arts, Herbology" said Jade "If I were you, since Kunigunde has complained that she has a brown thumb as well as having not a clue about theory, I'd let her drop Herbology; I'm excusing her Dark Arts. She can manage to deal with a boggart – I drilled them all thoroughly on that – and frankly that's all she's ever likely to need to deal with. Taking four ZPs that she has a chance of passing is surely preferable to failing six. Panayot is a good sort, he'll co-operate once he knows the problem; and I know Attila is concerned about her, and Ihor; and Orlando likes the child and wishes her well. Between us we'll coach her; perhaps Panayot will let her sit in on his fourth year class that runs at the same time as her herbology – I went and checked the timetable – so she can go over some things a second time. My class unfortunately only runs beside fourth year Arithmancy so that's no help; all I can do is be on hand to sort out her problems. I hardly like to suggest the child sit in on third year transfigurations; she'd get no end teased by some of the little brats in that year, who fall into the two camps of truly decent and in need of strangling."

"Such a succinct way of putting things" murmured Agata. Jade grinned.

"I wouldn't; it would cause you embarrassment" she said "Mind you I had half of them dangling in the air as four foot woodlice the other week; I shan't bore you with details but it was a case of extreme rudeness and calling of names – Kobbold-kissers – to those who believe that politeness is an imperative of all and who were duly courteous to those goblin workmen you had in to mend the bed. As one of those I punished was involved in the said breaking I threatened her with sending the goblins away so they might not hear her unladylike comments and think that Durmstrang turned out lowborn guttersnipes and make HER therefore sleep on the broken bed. She didn't like that much" she grinned. "It was led by her – Hortensia Slukstrup if I actually have to name her – and Vladimir Chernykrov. Either one of them could end up being on the receiving end of those of us who fight dark wizards one day unless I – or Clovis – can think of a cure. And I think Chernykrov has the same brain imbalance that De Witt and Schrempf had. And it's one I don't understand well enough to remove" she shrugged "I take the safe course of dropping a subtle curse that makes his worst nightmare come up in front of his eyes if he casts the cruciatus curse; for the protection of others it's the best I can do. And his problem if he takes Dark Arts to ZH and needs to demonstrate it in the exam" she added "I'd rather he DIDN't take it to ZH; he's too much in danger from the Dark Arts and far too much of a fool to realise. We HAVE strayed from Frieda; you'll have to let her parents know that you're limiting her ZP's and why; but if I was you I'd get my retaliation in first by being hurt and saddened that they had not confided in you and asked your help earlier as some of her difficulties have been helped by a complex but routine medical transfiguration by one of your staff."

"You in other words; who calls routine what most people stumble over" said Agata without rancour. Jade shrugged. "It seems routine to me; and I know I'm not the only person to perform it. Professor Dumbledore researched the phenomenon of word blindness, a chemical imbalance that upsets the ability to read and write. It takes a small tweak to the brain to correct; I'll show you how if you like; and Attila too will probably like to know if he doesn't already."

"Thank you" said Agata. She knew by now it was Jade's genuine desire to be helpful that prompted such offers; not arrogance and showing off. Jade liked to share knowledge; where so many of high ability liked to hug it to themselves boasting of what they knew but unwilling to actually share it. Agata liked Jade; and trusted her. And she had a snippy letter to write to Frieda's parents!

oOoOo

Frieda, established into taking only four classes with as much help as they could give from the professors involved and Jade too, was a much happier child and wrote as much to her parents, begging them to let her go to Prince Peak and take an English ZH there and perhaps an English ZP or two alongside it. Jade had told her about the class as she remembered it, including the half goblin girl Leneli; not that Frieda cared what race people were so long as they might be kind to her. Her mother wrote back that if the English Professor Snape really did take children who needed extra help, then she would see about talking to him, but there was no point in asking until they knew how well she had done in the exams so as to know exactly what to ask for; though providing she did her best her parents would be proud of her. Frieda showed the letter to Jade.

"They expect me to fail" she said dolefully.

"They fear you may fail and do not want you building up hopes that might upset you if they are crushed" said Jade "It's a tactful way of saying, hey our kid, there's not much time to catch up before the exams even with extra help; which is to some extent true. Like they say; do your best. If you don't get the grades you want, then will be the time to negotiate retakes in Prince Peak with my dad."

"Your DAD?" said Frieda, puzzled.

"Professor Snape is my father; I posed as Nefrita Von Strang to bring down Odessa" shrugged Jade "I'm Jade Snape; it's no big secret now but I'm Frau Von Luytens because I'm married to my Wulf. I'm adopted like about half my siblings; you'll be the year above my sister Silvina, who has issues with some academic stuff but is really musical. Actually you count as a talented child because you have a touch with animals; so you fit in on both counts, gifted AND special needs. If the worst comes to the worst and you fail all four, it's no big deal; reckon you can study them all over and take a NEWT alongside them too. Dad will negotiate that with you. But you're certainly not going to fail care of beasts; I've heard you on the subject and you know more than you realise. You just have to take a deep breath and answer the questions one at a time and make sure you read them carefully; and if you have to skimp a little on the answers, reckon you can pull yourself up well on the practical. Then you can choose in the sixth whether to take care of big scary beasts, or care of domestic beasts. Prince Peak offers them both but you have to talk fast to take care of big scary beasts; it isn't actually as widely used as care of domestic beasts. Then you walk into a prestigious job caring for the beasts in some big household or even in a school; I'd already negotiated the employment of a married couple for the school I'll be starting, one to teach one to care for the school animals, or I'd offer you a job. But I WILL keep my ear to the ground."

"Oh THANK you Frau Von Luytens!" said Frieda. "I WILL pass at least one and with your help I think I might pass all four!"

Jade, Attila, Panayot and Ihor had come to the conclusion that the best thing to do was to pare down the three subjects besides caring for beasts to the bare minimum so that Frieda had the basic tools to pass if nothing more. Fortunately there was no reason she should not accrue marks on the practical providing she was careful and did not in potions return a conclusion of 'I cannot draw a conclusion since both cauldrons did the opposite of what I expected them to, which makes me think I maybe got them the wrong way round which proves that potions needs to be got right for it to work' which she had written for her end of the Yule term exam. Her potions were certainly no worse than average, and her wand work, if not inspired, was solid enough. Jade had coached her on the summoning spell and explained that even if she hated discommoding animals by turning them into things she might always turn them back after the examiner had seen her efforts using the true name of the creature as an aid. Jade grinned an explained how her mum had confused the Transfigurations teacher at Hogwarts with a similar attitude and asked if she couldn't turn bullies into things instead because they had fewer finer feelings than hedgehogs and tortoises. That cheered Frieda up; if the wife of the fearsome Professor Snape cared about the feelings of animals it was not wrong for her to do so. And Frau Von Luytens seemed to think it laudable.

And when Jade overheard Medopa Von Nagelbohrer scoffing at Frieda for her attitude she went over and said,

"Fraulein Verwirremann is to be congratulated on her attitude, Fraulein Von Nagelbohrer; perhaps instead she should practise transfiguration on you by using your first name, which is that of a Gothic queen to turn you into a gothic gargoyle; though when you pull such childish faces of sneering as you are doing, I doubt anyone would notice the difference. It is against my ethics to either leave a creature in a non animate form and too to fail to add a permanency charm to any creature I summon if it has any level of consciousness of self awareness. Which is why the school has a spare hippogriff from my ZH exam."

"You summoned a Hippogriff?" gasped Medopa.

"No, I transfigured the rock; which in English has a similar sound to the mythical beast the Roc. Which I could not leave as such having created the poor thing, as the only one of its kind in the world. So I transfigured it into a hippogriff; it seemed the best solution at the time. The examiner agreed; I took an 'O' in the exam" said Jade. "The marks for ZH are not purely for which basic item you choose but the complexity of the transfiguration you build around them, though talking about ZH is getting ahead of ourselves. And I believe that your own _inanimatus conjuratus_ is not so good, Fraulein, that you can afford to criticise others" Jade added.

Medopa flushed; it was true. And as Frau Von Luytens was said to be harder than anyone in Germany, if she felt it wrong to leave animals as objects, maybe it was.

She muttered an apology to Frieda and escaped.

"I can now do a good conjuration, thanks to you" said Frieda. It had taken some coaching; and Jade had invited her to join Jaromir on the Sunday afternoon detentions with Everilda Widder who was ploughing sulkily through her five hundred lines. Jade was happy to sit for an hour every Sunday afternoon until the end of term if the girl took so long; personally she would have done them as fast as was legibly possible and dealt with the cramp over less but more painful periods of time; but that was Widder's choice. Jade was busy coaching Jaromir anyway so she was not going anywhere. And now too Frieda needed her. The ZP transfiguration students had the choice of producing a knife or a box; and as with the English OWL marks were given for complexity. Jade suggested that a knife might be handy for cutting bandages, or cutting into an animal if Frieda felt nervous about using _diffindo_ to do so; and suggested working on producing a comfortable bone handle perhaps carved scrimshaw fashion with unicorns; she showed her some pictures of steppe art as exemplars. Frieda had very little imagination but she could do the wand work once she had been given some ideas; and practised assiduously. If she could score highly on the practical, even if she was borderline on the written, the practical was seen to be the more important paper in both transfigurations and charms; unlike potions where it was acknowledged that a single mistake could lead to a disaster in the practical and so both written and practical were given equal weight and credit was given for a good write up of a failed potion too.

And Jade had explained Golapott by telling Frieda that he was a clever old codger who realised that if anyone louses up someone with a poison, it takes more to put right what's wrong than the effort of doing the lousing up in the first place, rather like the effort you have to go to in order to erase an ink blot that was awfully easy to make but bloody hard to get rid of.

That gave Frieda a far more understandable explanation of Golapott's first law than the book definition; and enabled Jade to then work through the definition with her. As to his second law, Jade shrugged and said that even as wine matured over time, some potions just got more potent; and the antidote had to be a lot LOT more potent and all that the exponential meant was that it was an arithmantic way of saying a lot LOT more potent and as half the rest of the class wouldn't be able to work it out and only learned the words she was safe doing the same because most people consulted an almanac which had tables for that sort of thing anyway, and if she was brewing potions for animals it would be the horsey version of pepperup potion and she was unlikely to have to rescue a horse from the throes of a love potion which was the most commonly encountered potion that law referred to. Frieda had giggled over the thought of a flying horse under the throes of love potion and Jade managed not to say that Everilda Widder, who was a poisoner rather then the poisoned looked rather like a horse herself. It would have been most improper to pass such remarks.

oOoOo

Meanwhile there was no indication that Abaris had any desire to contact Jade; only a report, too long after the event, from contacts of Draco's that a series of killings in Cairo by exsanguination had begun suddenly and ceased as suddenly; and that as the unfortunate victims had all been prostitutes it had been put down to turf wars of pimps and had been effectively ignored by all but one conscientious policeman who actually posted the fact of the killings on the internet after they stopped in the hopes that if they started elsewhere they might attract the attention of someone who would put two and two together. Draco had seen the man and told him that he had every belief that they were ritual killings by a man who believed himself to be a mighty wizard who needed blood to maintain his power; sometimes it was easier to name dark wizards as nuts to get the co-operation of the muggle police. And the one Cairo policeman who cared at least felt that someone appreciated his efforts and cared too.

And as the killings had passed without official notice to speak of, it was not impossible that Abaris might return to seek such an easy source; and then the local police would alert Draco.

Draco also reported that most of the dead girls had also been a few weeks pregnant; probably not far enough along for them to be certain, but was easily discernible using Scarpin's Revellaspell as it had been by autopsy. And enhanced in life force by it. His Cairo policeman contact had wondered and worried how the madman had known; and Draco shrugged and said that some people had a better sense of smell than others, and pregnant women DID smell subtly different, and he probably believed that he had cast a spell to determine which ones would give him the most life force because madmen did not have to be logical, only to have a system they believed logical.

Which being so, the Cairo policeman had hope and Draco came away with nothing but a taste for Turkish coffee.

oOoOo

And then the First Marauders came up with a brilliant idea.

"We wondered" said Zlatko one morning after the ECC run, on which Frieda had recently been invited "Whether you could make a line to repel undead like you have to repel fey."

Jade stared.

"Brilliant" she said "And what's more I can go one better."

"How's that?" asked Zlatko "I did work out some ancient runes to start to set up a chant by the way."

"Good man" said Jade. "How better? Like this. I recall hearing from Lucius that when Lionel did his Chanting NEWT he had to exclude spiders; only Lion, being Lion, had heard about the Arithmancy exam that year and it involved the engulfing charm used on the vault door of Gringotts' bank; and he set up two circles and one engulfed the spiders and threw them into the other. Now there's a locked and windowless dungeon room that Ihor uses to store stuff in; if we ask nicely we can maybe set THAT to be engulfed into; and we check it daily to see if we have caught us a lich. Of course he might be powerful enough to pull away from the engulfment; but if we all do a good chant….."

"And the school is an anti apparating zone and he can't get any fey in to spirit him out THAT way because they can't get in" said Zlatka.

"Or even if there's a yet other space he could summon them from they can't get out carrying him" said Xanthippe.

"I hadn't considered the summoning being through yet another space; but you could be right at that" said Jade "Good lateral thinking Owlglass; I'll have a good peer when my upper sixth next summon dementors and see if I need yet another arithmantic algorithm to define that. I've been sort of assuming it was the same as elf apparation; but the fey would be thrown out of elf style apparation as they hit the zone anyway because I extended it into fey space which interacts with the elf travel. Elves are far enough removed from fey not to be affected as are Elfleda and I so long as we don't use fey space itself. But I'd rather not have to deal with an irritable lich AND half a dozen trapped efreeti."

Jade accordingly set her class the task of summoning dementors and practising using their patronuses to drive them off; and determined that the algorithm was different enough that they were actually able to summon dementors despite the anti fey zone. The dementors did NOT like the exclusion line when driven onto it either; and Jade absently electrocuted them all with a single burst of energy.

That was potentially worrying; and she set up a view-o-sneak in the room she wished to use as soon as she had Ihor's permission to use it; and took the entire chanting class out on Saturday so they might have the fun of doing something real.

The majority of them had little idea what they were doing but Jade told them it was to trap stray vampires and the like and this seemed reasonable so there was no complaint. Besides, for those who would take the ZP, having a serious long chant was good practise. And Jade might too see how they were progressing.

To Jaromir, Zhanargul and the first marauders she held nothing back; Jaromir had become a good ally and Jade was considering blooding him. And perhaps Takeo too. And as he too had serious purpose in the future she let him in on it. One never knew when such things might come in useful for the group he planned to lead.

"We fear the undead in Japan" said Takeo "Such a means to entrap them means I fear them less; and I might consider then setting up a base in known haunted areas where none would dare approach but by this means we might be made safe."

"Then I am glad I have gone more deeply into it" said Jade "I would not want to scare most of the chanters with too much detail."

"I agree" said Jaromir. "For those of us who understand what is going on it is comforting to know; otherwise it is too much detail."

"And with all this really heavy stuff going down, time we thought of a jape to cheer you all up" said Xanthe.

"I might have known life would never be easy" said Jade.

oOoOo

The jape was, when it materialised, moderately harmless; the First Durmstrang Marauders had picked up some pointers from the Belle Marauders over the summer holidays and the staff came in to supper to be greeted by suits of armour doing the pointy dance with additional deep knee bends and an enchantment to sing, basso profundo, Katte Krätchzen's 'come and stir my cauldron hard'. They shook all over at the parts where the original singer was known for her vibrato.

"Frau Von Luytens, pray remove this manifestation of a dark creature from the Hall" said Agata.

"Was that dark in respect to Katte Krätchzen or to the undoubted perpetrators of the prank?" asked Jade.

"Both" said Agata.

Jade quickly managed to break the enchantments; it took a little more than _finite incantatem_ since

there had been some chanting involved.

"Nice effort" said Jade "Six inches from each of you on how you managed to hold the spells so firmly and a note of whether you used the proper incantation to get them moving or whether you swiped the use of muggle incantations from the Hogwarts marauders. Thank you for cheering me up but you don't get let off the impot for it."

The marauders grinned; they had not expected to be let off. And it was well worth it!


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

The Five were ripe for mischief; they had not done any planned mischief for a while and they were a trifle resentful because of Erzebet Czerny.

Czerny had hissed at Sigismund that if she found that he was responsible for sending her a not very funny valentine he would regret it. Sigismund, who knew nothing about the valentine jape, stared at her and said bluntly that he would never send her any kind of valentine and would frankly rather kiss a Yeti.

Czerny had tried to set him lines for cheek, which Sigismund pointed out was beyond her capacity to do as she was not a prefect; whereupon Czerny reported him to Konstanty Masicwiccz.

The head boy summoned Sigismund for his side of it.

"I told her she can't set me lines for anything" said Sigismund "Because I refuted her claim that I'd sent her a valentine – YUK! I said I'd as soon kiss a Yeti and I would."

"Tactless" said Konstanty "Really you ought to show her the respect due to a girl in her exam year."

"Please Herr Masicwicz, respect is earned and she's not respectable" said Sigismund.

Konstanty thought on his feet.

"Well one day, when you're a prefect, you are going to find that to uphold discipline in the school and harmony you will have to behave as though all your own age group ARE respectable on the grounds that their age means they ought to be" he said "And I'd take it as a favour if you and all your cronies treated her with the circumspection you would show any adult and the respect her age demands even if she still acts a little childishly; be charitable and put it down to exam nerves, hmm?"

"If you believed that you wouldn't have worded it that way" said Sigismund shrewdly "But for YOU Herr Masicwicz I will try to treat her with circumspection; but I'm not taking any impots off her."

"And you should not" said Konstanty "As she is not entitled to give them. Just… oh come quietly to me, not as head boy exactly but as someone to intercede if she gets er heavy handed."

Sigismund left happily – without any lines from the head boy who did not feel them warranted, whereupon Czerny pounced on him.

"How many lines did you get for cheeking me?" she demanded.

Sigismund stared.

"Excuse me, that is between me and the head boy" he said.

"NO! I have a right to know! It is I who has demanded punishment! Tell me!"

Sigismund sighed. Treating her as worthy of any respect was going to be hard.

"The Head Boy" he emphasised the title "Did not think there was any case for me to write any lines, but asked me to treat you with the respect your age ought to deserve and to try not to be tactless. I respect HIM so I shall endeavour to do as he asks. I should like to get back to my common room now, if you please."

"He let you off with nothing? Then I must punish you!" yelled Czerny. "_Crucio!_"

"_Speculum!_" countered Sigismund, sharing out the first wash of agony with his nearest cronies. The mirrored air sprang up before him and Czerny screamed and fell to her knees. Konstanty had exited the little room given to him as study and office and took in the scene before him.

"Herr Tóth, get about your business" he said "Fraulein Czerny, into my office now."

"He cast the cruciatus curse at me! He should be punished!" said Czerny.

"I saw a boy holding up the mirror spell to reflect YOUR cruciatus curse" said Konstanty grimly "And it's an expulsion offence."

"She thinks that she can get away with it because I have too much pride to complain to Aunt Agata and report her" said Sigismund.

Konstanty blinked.

"Oh THAT's why the head is tough on you" he said "I did wonder. Well I am NOT related to the head so I have no compunction about considering reporting you, Czerny; and Tóth, I told you to go. Be out of sight before I can count to three or you WILL be doing lines."

Sigismund hurried off.

He had no desire to incur lines if he could avoid it, however much he might hope to be a fly on the wall.

oOoOo

"You've had it in for that kid since he didn't want to be your fag" said Konstanty "And now this! Why on earth should you think he'd send you a valentine?"

"It was purporting to be from a troll" said Czerny sulkily "He and his friends are the sort that would think it a laugh."

"Get it" said Konstanty.

Sulkily Czerny went to her study for the offending card; she had kept it as 'evidence' despite an initial urge to burn it. Konstanty looked at it.

"Childish, but in no wise truly nasty" he said "The perpetrators could have been a lot more offensive. And by the way I recognise the handwriting and it isn't Herr Tóth's; because I've had this handwriting over my desk with lines. And no I'm NOT going to tell YOU; because I don't want to be the first and last head boy because I become responsible for the death of a kid if you decide to hurl the killing curse which I don't trust a nasty piece like you not to do. I will set an impot for the culprit. And now can you give me any justification of why you would cast an unforgivable curse at an eleven year old little boy?"

"Well obviously because you shirk you duty because you hadn't set him any lines – currying favour with the head I suppose if the brat is her nephew, which is why she was so rotten about not ordering him to fag for me!" said Czerny.

"For one you great goop, I had no idea until he mentioned it just now that the kid IS related to Madam Bacsó; and for another I should NOT go out of my way to do anything so crass as to curry favour" said Konstanty in a very controlled voice. "And for a third, why the devil SHOULD the head order any kid to fag for a particular person? It's none of her business! He picked a principal to fag for; it wasn't you. End of. You can duel for his services; but wait, you wouldn't dare because you're not as good at spellwork as the fifth former he's fagging for. You are the limit!"

"How dare you call me names? You are a braggart and you abuse your position!" howled Czerny.

"Well if you're only going to be ridiculous and can't find a way to excuse your behaviour it's going to HAVE to go to the head" said Konstanty. "I try to help you out and you throw it in my face; you are a nasty piece of work and I hope the head DOES expel you. Come on!"

oOoOo

In the Head's office, Agata listened with deep disappointment but no real surprise to Konstanty's concise recounting of the catalogue of events, with rude interruptions from Czerny.

Asked to account for herself, the girl made an incoherent and impassioned speech about how it wasn't fair, she should get preferential treatment for being Hungarian like the head and should have had the boy be MADE to fag for her and that if he was being made a pet of for being the head's nephew that wasn't fair – apparently preferential treatment for her was all right but not for others – and that she should be allowed to punish cheeky brats and she could not see why she had not been made a prefect.

"You were not made a prefect for precisely the reason that you have no self control and consider it appropriate to use unforgivable curses as punishments on small children" said Agata coldly "And I am proven right in my decision to pass you over for your unpleasant nature. I am head of this school and of ALL the pupils; ethnic background should be immaterial; and as it happens I have gone out of my way to avoid making a pet of Sigismund and have punished him harder if I have had his misdeeds brought to my attention than I would another child. This last piece of malice seems to be directed at wanting to punish him for NOT having sent you a crude but rather amusing valentine; which piece of mischief Herr Masicwicz has in hand. I made warning at the beginning of the year; and I will not go back on my word. I have very little choice but to expel you; and that means you will be unable to take your ZH's, which you should have thought of before casting unforgivable curses. You are an adult, Fraulein Czerny and could be sent to Nurmengard for that if Sigismund's parents decided to press charges. I will ask them not to; not for YOUR protection but to prevent the shame to the school. You are disgusting; go and pack."

Agata had firmly used German as the official language of the school, refusing to let the girl force her into speaking Hungarian and so force any kind of bond; it was insupportable that such a girl should expect better treatment just for her shared background!

Czerny stared open mouthed, unable to believe what had been said.

"You – you're actually EXPELLING me?" she asked.

"I am; and I can't see why you are surprised" said Agata coldly "You have systematically bullied younger children throughout your school career, have failed to take hints on the subject, have antagonised Frau Von Luytens to the point she was happy for you to study alone, have tried to break the school rules to get a fag and been ill natured and unfair because nobody would fag for you; you could have shown a changed nature to try to persuade fags to your service, but you cannot change your nasty and vicious nature. And now you have flouted my authority and that of my representative in Herr Masicwicz and cast an unforgivable curse; and that is unforgivable."

"But he doesn't do his duty! He didn't punish Tóth for cheek!"

"I expect he felt – as I do – that it is too much to expect a little boy to treat with respect an animal like you" said Agata coldly. "You have less manners than a graphorn and your methods are those one might have expected of a badly brought up troll; the valentine was quite apposite. I should really flog you before expelling you except that I really can't be bothered to take that much effort over you."

Erzebet Czerny was finally taking it in that she was being expelled; that she would take no ZH's at all; she fled sobbing bitter tears of anger and disappointment. It is sad to say that the anger was towards Sigismund and Agata and Konstanty; for Erzebet Czerny was not a girl to consider that her unpopularity might be down to her own deficiencies.

oOoOo

The Five meanwhile, unaware of this, were holding an indignation meeting.

"And I can't see how Konstanty can EXPECT us to treat a girl like that with respect!" said Lindhard "And if she's blaming you for some rotten valentine – I suppose someone stood her up or something, though I can't see anyone except a troll wanting to go out with her – we might as well do something worth taking an impot FOR!"

This was considered quite fair.

"How about we chant her into making strange noises whenever she wants to talk?" suggested Beryx.

"It's sort of interfering with the staff 'cos they won't get any sense out of her in lessons" said Beremud "well, even less sense" he amended.

"There's a curse the big ones cast that make people's feet play music" said Corneliu "Reckon with a chant we might duplicate that."

"Good idea!" agreed Sigismund.

Which being decided the Five proceeded to dance and sing; and as Czerny finished packing and moved away from the bed she found to her horror sounds of polka music issuing from her feet!

She was ready to kill when she came upon Jade.

"This is your fault, Nefrita Von Strang! You spoiled it all by letting little brats run riot, you stop people who have risen in the school having their right due and stop me punishing brats!" she cried, and hurled the killing curse.

Jade, having the power of twenty three at her finger tips had the diffusion grid up fast, having seen the intent in Czerny's eyes; and dissipated through the Durmstrang blooded what little got through.

"I COULD have put up the mirror charm you know" said Jade coldly. "Do you WANT to be expelled?"

"I already have been! For punishing that rotten brat Tóth and he cheated by putting up a mirror spell!"

"I note with the more inadequate would-be dark wizards that it is cheating to actually be more skilled than the little bully" said Jade. "Czerny, I could hurt you in so many ways you cannot even imagine without even resorting to the unforgivable curses; but I have self restraint. And because I have self restraint and self discipline I have become more powerful than you can possibly imagine – and you don't even recognise the quote you poor sad ignorant git even if it is out of context – because I can discipline myself. You cannot. You aren't even going to be a successful dark witch because you are so limited. Are you done with being boring?" Czerny was pouring curse after curse into Jade, whose shield charm was impervious. "Because I think I may now retaliate. Watch and learn."

Without ado, Jade cycled Czerny through a selection of weird and wonderful animals, not all of which the victim recognised which was scarcely surprising since Jade had come sufficiently close to losing her temper that some of the creatures whose form Czerny assumed had never existed, since it amused Jade to make her become Salacious Crumb, Jar-Jar Binks and Jabba the Hutt, making up the internal physiology as she went along. And when she returned Czerny to her own form, Jade made a pass in front of the girl's eyes; and Czerny began screaming in terror.

"That" said Jade, cancelling the curse "Will come back every time you cast an unforgivable curse. You are an abomination; and I am glad you have been expelled. Now get out of my sight!"

Czerny stumbled away from the cold whiplash of a voice, suddenly realising how much more powerful than her was Nefrita Von Strang und Luytens.

Her feet were still playing polka music.

oOoOo

Kjell turned up in Konstanty's office with three little girls.

"I don't recall issuing a general invitation" said Konstanty.

"Oh please, Herr Masicwicz, if it's about trouble, we were almost certainly as involved as Kjell" said Elfleda "Because we do all that sort of thing as a matched set."

"I see" said Konstanty "Can you throw any light on this?" he passed over the valentine.

"Oh yes, that's one of the ones I wrote" said Kjell.

"We divided them up" said Sofie.

"But it was a joint effort over who sent each of them" said Leva "This is the one to Czerny because she IS a troll; the one to Leckkessel was from the Kraken because it needs that many legs to deal with her many headed mutability, and the one to Reynoult was from a shy boggart who found her scary. We sent one from a high born centaur to Pompilia asking if she'd marry him if he could prove a 'Von' in his name and one from a poltergeist to Velma in the hopes he might make her laugh occasionally and one from a unicorn to Serafina because she's dead nice. I forget the rest."

"Trust Czerny to be the one to whine and not take it as a mild rebuke" said Kjell "And we aren't sorry at all Herr Masicwicz so it's no good appealing to our finer feelings 'cos over her we don't have any."

"You might have some finer feelings over the first year she cast the cruciatus curse at because she thought him responsible" said Konstanty and was rewarded by four faces going white.

"We felt something – they shared it out before it got to us…." Said Sofie.

"Well we'll just have to SCRAG her and you can punish us for that later!" said Leva.

"You don't have to; she's been expelled" said Konstanty "I took that matter to the head. And the kid cast a very competent mirror charm incidentally. I just wanted you to realise that sometimes the innocent get harmed by mischief."

"I should think she OUGHT to have realised who did it" said Kjell in scorn "She's SO stupid!"

"Yes; after all we've been picking on her since we became marauders" said Elfleda "Every time she throws her weight around to little kids we set out to jinx her or play a trick on her; anyone not subnormal would have caught on."

"Well, maybe she IS subnormal; that should have been taken into account" said Konstanty. "I want you each to write me an ode from a troll to er, Hedda Schrempf to teach you the value of love poetry."

They grinned at him collectively. It would be tough but it should be quite funny.

And Konstanty, who had every faith in the second marauders' ability to be witty, planned on keeping their efforts as a reminder of the funnier doings of the youngsters in his year as head boy!

oOoOo

"Why polka music?" Agata asked her son over kaffee und kuchen.

"Because it's sort of bright and cheery and she's a miserable cow and we thought it ought to irritate her" said Sigismund. "And it was kind of by way of belling the cat too, so any poor kid would know if she was sneaking up on them looking for someone to hurt; 'cos we didn't know she would be expelled, even though Herr Masicwicz said she ought to be. I'm glad she is" he added honestly.

"It wasn't because it was you she cast the spell at; but because she cast the spell at all" said Agata.

"Oh I know that" said Sigismund. "I kind of thought you might let her off because it was only me and because I can look out for myself; she didn't like it reflected back at her you know."

"You did well" said Agata warmly. "No; anything but an unforgivable curse I might have erred on her side not yours; but I had sworn to the school that such things would not happen again. I suppose, if she'd had a reasonable explanation or excuse, I might have called on you and presumed on the relationship to keep it quiet; Frau Von Luytens says that many people given second chances make good and I'm not about to dispute that from so implacable a fighter against darkness as she is. But I cannot keep a girl who feels such things are reasonable and who thinks, of all things, that I take the side of anyone but her. She will perhaps be trouble in the future; I fear there will be many I expel because I cannot tolerate their behaviour, who may band together in a campaign of hate. And as such I want you to write me an account in your own words what happened; not as an imposition but for me to place in the files so that if this girl tries to lie and bring the school into disrepute I have your sworn statement, and that of Konstanty, to show what kind of girl she is. I HOPE I do not need it; but I fear I might. She is a most unpleasant girl and I am glad to be rid of her – and I did not say so to you – but I fear her potential retribution. Which is not, at least, as likely as if she were German or pure blood or from a powerful family. And it is her very obscurity of course that has made her so foul; a desire to throw her weight about as compensation for being low born, of mixed blood and from a relatively obscure part of the German co-prosperity sphere."

"I didn't know all that; I thought she was just born nasty and got worse" said Sigismund.

"Oh few people are born nasty; though Frau Von Luytens tells me some have an imbalance in their brains that can make them like hurting people. Most nasty people learn how to be nasty from their parents; or from circumstances. I expect you'll learn about that as a marauder" said Agata.

Sigismund brightened.

It would be nice to learn WHY people were like they were!

oOoOo

And when Erzebet Czerny's father came to the school to complain that his daughter had been expelled because the word of some guttersnipe had been taken over hers when she had every right to punish the brat, Agata smiled a thin smile and pointed out that his daughter's attack on her nephew – and how instructive it was that he thought the head of Durmstrang to be a guttersnipe by association – had been witnessed by the head boy; who had reported it though the younger boy had NOT done so. And that because of her relationship with the little boy, she had managed to persuade his parents NOT to press charges against an adult using an unforgivable curse which would surely see Erzebet in Nurmengard for several decades; but that if he persisted in making a nuisance of himself she would not only withdraw her objections from pressing charges she would recommend that the whole family be investigated for connections to illegal organisations like Odessa.

Mr Czerny left in a hurry and Agata passed on information to the Vehmgerichten that the family MIGHT indeed bear investigation.

oOoOo

The next excitement was caused by Abaris.

Jade had set up a fey barrier about the cell itself, as well as placing large amounts of enchantments on the doors; and checked her view-o-sneak regularly. She had forgotten to check it first thing in the morning one morning for the minor excitement of Sofie falling over on the run and needing a healing spell and a cuddle after getting a really nastily cut knee on a sharp rock; and when she did look, to her excitement there was the strangely clad Scythian wizard performing the last sentences of a summoning spell.

Jade took the stairs to the dungeon two at a time, pulsing the older ones to stand by; and as she headed down the last corridor the door burst open with a thunderous detonation. The thin dying scream of the conjured efreet told Jade how the lich had got the power for THAT little demonstration; and through the dust she could see the drained husk of the fey creature, insubstantial but still able to be affected by magical weapons. The lich was fleeing.

"Why Abaris; you wanted to come here; leaving us so soon?" mocked Jade.

"YOU! And when I come to meet, I am incarcerated!" said Abaris. "You have treated me badly child; but I may forgive you yet" his voice took a persuasive tone.

Jade gave him a slow hand clap.

"Nice try but no banana" she said "I was reared in the Voldemort years; and he was more than your master at voice control. By the by, had you come to the front door like an honest caller, my engulfing charm was designed to deform to permit such; only by sneaking in like a thief in the night were you caught up in it; and I don't believe you even know how I did it" she added "But then, speaking about it being a bit like a Klein Bottle would probably mean nothing to you anyway; you're too out of touch. Are you surrendering?"

His answer was the killing curse; cast wordlessly and wandlessly. Jade had the diffusion grid fully up in the time they bandied words; and then the duel began in earnest as a running battle, withdrawing into the grounds, as professors shooed children into classrooms and locked them.

Abaris was good; and Jade wondered if she should draw on the power of others, though her shield charm held solidly against anything he could throw at her. His own shield held fairly well as well, and apart from having briefly dangled from one ankle – still throwing cutting charms and the cruciatus curse at her – he had it all well in hand. Jade cast _expelliarmus_ and his wand flew from his hand now he had hold of it, though that was of little more moment to him than it was to her; she cast again rapidly to cast the cursed knife from his belt, concentrating on seeing that as a weapon more than a wand. He howled in anger and poured spell after spell on Jade, trying to move towards the knife as she was distracted by his onslaught; and was foiled by Zlatko casting _accio_ on the thing from behind Jade.

The killing curse whipped out to the Bulgarian boy and Jade felt the headache wash over her as it dissipated through Zlatko and the rest of the Germanic bloodkin; and Zlatka and Xanthippe and Xanthe were at his side casting all the best jinxes they knew, and Zhanargul, Jaromir and Takeo backing them. Abaris fled; summoning dementors as a last ditch defence to cover his tracks.

Dementors were no big deal but they had to be dealt with; and by the time Jade had electrocuted them all Abaris had reached the edge of the anti-apparating zone and had got away.

He looked very old and dead by the time he left; the battle had drained him of much stored power.

And now he did not have his knife.

Jade went over to Zlatko.

"You haven't touched it with your bare hands?" she asked sharply.

"No ma'am, I have it by the tongs from the potions dungeon" said Zlatko "And it's trying to get away"

"Don't loose hold; it's trying to plunge into your throat" said Jade grimly.

"Is it alive?" asked Xanthippe.

"Kinda sorta" said Jade. She cast the revellaspell. "Yes, it is akin to a horcrux save that it acts to connect to the spirit of the lich to feed it. Hang in there Zlatko; I need to chant this damn thing into submission and it'll protest."

"Zlatka get another pair of tongs; we'll hold it between us" said Zlatko.

Jade nodded; Zlatko had no false pride and he knew it was as much as he could deal with. Zlatka soon returned with Agata's own fire tongs; and took hold, gasping at the wriggling.

Jade meanwhile had taught her chanters a background chant to hold.

"I know no Scythian" she said "But I guess a chant of similar age may work; here's a Jewish prayer for peace which is what we want to do, pacify the ruddy thing. It goes,

"_Shalom chaverim, shalom chaverim, shalom, shalom_

_la hit re ot, la hit re ot, shalom, shalom"_

The other marauders, Jaromir, Takeo and Zhanargul were chanting that, Saula joining in too; and Jade began a complex chant in ancient Greek that had to do with unwinding enchantment and drawing out the soul of the knife for which she lapsed into ancient Egyptian's harsh tones to do to the knife much what she had done last year to Hedda Schrempf; and as the knife struggled futilely she made a wrenching movement with her hands and with a thin, despairing wail the knife shuddered; and was still.

Jade cast the revellaspell again and relaxed.

"You can let go now; it's inert" she said.

Zlatka and Zlatko released their grim hold on the knife and it dropped to the ground.

Jade picked it up and examined it.

"I think it was old in our lich's time" she said "And kept so new looking by the enchantments in it; one for the school museum, exhibited as 'one more weapon that none of the staff or pupils have been killed by' and by the by I'm off to see if I can use it to cure the last residual taint of curse in Goldmund's wound because what wounds can heal."

"May we watch?" asked Jaromir.

"I'll take a communications globe in; no point upsetting her" said Jade.

The other staff had cautiously emerged and Frieda demanded to come to Goldmund with Jade.

"You won't understand much of what I'm doing" warned Jade "It's a bit post ZH in level."

"I'd like to help keep Goldmund calm" said Frieda.

"Well you can do that; I have to cut her" said Jade.

oOoOo

Goldmund recognised the knife and showed the whites of her eyes. Jade let her sniff it.

"It's safe now; I must cut you to let all the badness out" said Jade, who had been concerned that there was still a puckered scar and some recurrent pus; and had been intending to ask her father to come in at the end of term to do a big ritual.

Goldmund was unhappy but Jade sang a song of soothing, and gently eased the sharp knife along the line of the wound. Yellow pus shot out first before the silvery unicorn blood; and then as Jade sang a song of healing and curse breaking the wound healed up, past the stage of a scar and on to smooth pink scar tissue.

Jade heaved a sigh of relief.

"Thank fuck for that; I think he was still managing to drain some life force from her. Which means as I've been supplementing her, I've actually been feeding the ruddy lich; but he's used all his spare power AND he's not getting Goldmund's AND he hasn't got his knife to drain. He's going to have to take more time over life draining rituals and get a little bit more obvious. And I've seen him and touched his outer mind; NOW I have the chance to find him again. Thanks Frieda; you may stay and pet Goldmund so long as you are not missing lessons" she added.

There was nothing more in the world Frieda could want more!

oOoOo

"How DID you come to have tongs with you?" Jade asked Zlatko. He grinned sheepishly.

"We were in the potions dungeon; and hearing the commotion I grabbed the fire irons as weapons. I kind of had the idea that he might not like cold iron – I don't think the fey do either if I recall rightly – and so I figured it might be useful."

"Well considered in the short time you had" said Jade "It's nice to know you use good instincts in split second decisions. And nicely done the four of you to apparate so smoothly to nearby me."

Xanthe giggled.

"I expect Fraulein Nachtigall is having conniptions" she said.

"I doubt it" said Jade dryly "She's used to Marauders at Prince Peak and smooth sudden apparations when trouble beckons. She'll set you an impot for rudeness if you forgot to say 'excuse me' first however."

The Eulenspiegel twins looked at each other and shrugged.

"We could try apologising" said Xanthippe.

"You could; and she might set a lesser impot" said Jade. "Now scoot and apologise!"

The twins scooted; and Jade curtseyed to Agata who had come out.

"More noise and fury?" sighed the headmistress.

"Only our lich" said Jade laconically "He is good; he got away. But we've killed his life-draining knife so he has lost a hell of a lot of power from the encounter. Anyway it's only fair that Durmstrang should have the chance of some excitement; it's been hogged by Hogwarts and Prince Peak before."

"Powers that be, has it been this disruptive at Hogwarts and Prince Peak and STILL the children perform well in lessons and the Triwizard?" gasped Agata.

"Crumbs, Agata, it's nothing this year to what we've been accustomed to; especially at Hogwarts in the Voldemort years. Though Odessa tried hard to be a constant irritation. But our lich is small potatoes really by comparison."

"Donner und Blitzen, the English really ARE the master race!" cried Agata. "What shall I do if he returns when you have your own school?"

"Leave it to the marauders of course" said Jade "It's what they're here for; and they're quite up to it you know. I didn't call on the group at all, though perhaps I should have done; I was more concerned with depriving him of the use of his knife nearly-horcrux. And even with the enchantment broken, it's so much a part of him I can probably bring him to me now. I was going to wait, however, until the end of term."

"Thank you my dear; even when you're being disruptive you are always very thoughtful" said Agata with heavy irony.

Jade hugged her.

"Think how boring it was for you without dark wizards to fight!" she said. "Anyway, you can't blame ME; it's Zhanargul who has the wicked uncle who started all this."

"Quite true I suppose" sighed Agata. "I need a schnapps coffee; join me?"

"With great pleasure Agata" said Jade with feeling.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

There were to be two quidditch fixtures played in quick succession; the first was to be against the Frankfurt Furies.

"They shouldn't pose the team any real problems" said Jade to her fans – who now included all the first team, since Jaromir was now among their number.

"Their beaters are nasty though" said Jaromir "Last year I was second team beater with Reynoult and I winced a lot watching; and by the by, I'd keep your brooms safe, Gisela, Sigismundus; she's awfully sore you two were picked above her as beater."

"She ought to have practised her accuracy with bludgers then and not give so many fouls" said Gisela.

"True; but like the unlamented Czerny, she does not see it that way, but that it is a slight to her to have younger ones chosen in her stead" said Jaromir. "The unholy trio as Frau Von Luytens calls them – I have heard you speak to Herr Luytens in the ECC I fear – are girls who have got their own way by bullying. I too have bullied because in that class it was the only way to get anything; as it was at home because they are of a type with my sister. They do not do what they do not want to do; and this school has not hitherto punished this because it had to bow to those in charge. So, Reynoult has not bothered to practise, since she has always thought that the second team automatically becomes the first team; but Fraulein Rundqvist has picked the best players not the oldest. So I say; guard your brooms."

The Asimov twins were whispering together.

"Take your brooms to your dorms, you two; actually, all of us do so; and we'll see about checking up if anyone does sabotage" said Zlatko. "It should be a laugh if they do."

"What do you plan to do?" asked Jaromir.

"Wait and see; just know that it will be a series of booby traps set to go off if jinxes are cast or fire is set. Anything else that might be done can you think?"

Jaromir shook his head.

"Hurling hexes or burning brooms are the usual forms of sabotage; I should think a competent spellster could lay in a delayed stinging hex that went off randomly only when a body is on the broom, and I should think that would make anyone fall off, not a good place to receive a stinging hex boy OR girl; or to treat it with an itching potion."

"She's no good at potions, is she?" said Zlatka "So I should think we can count that relatively subtle piece of work out."

"I'd say so" said Jaromir. "She takes Charms to ZH; I would think with her Dark Arts also she would think of a solution involving jinxes."

"Better yet" said Zlatko.

oOoOo

On the Saturday of the anticipated match against the Frankfurt Furies, Claudette Reynoult did not come to breakfast. Madam Bacsó sent an elf to find out why.

The elf, on her return, squeaked loudly,

"Fraulein Reynoult is embarrassed to come to breakfast because she is green and covered in pustules and her wand is a smoking stump"

"Have you any idea how this phenomenon occurred?" asked Agata.

"Fraulein Reynoult did not wish to say, Frau Bacsó" said the elf.

"Can anyone in the body of the school cast any light on this matter?" asked Agata.

Zlatko and Zlatka rose.

"It sounds really rather like the effects we placed on replicas of the first team brooms to protect them from tampering; though it seems odd that such might have happened to a big girl in the sixth" Zlatko said "We wanted to make sure no naughty juniors played any jokes on the first team before an important match, you understand; and we thought a minor curse or two on them and the temporary discommodation of their wand would teach any such a lesson. Though it sounds as though either our curse on the wand was too powerful or the magic being cast by it was…. But surely a big girl in the upper sixth would not be casting powerful dark magic on brooms? It must be a coincidence."

"Thank you Herr Asimov" said Agata "I may ask you to attend me later to remove any excess jinxes; elf, you may inform Fraukein Reynoult that I will see her in my study immediately after Frühstück."

"Yes ma'am" said the elf.

oOoOo

Claudette Reynoult could not produce a satisfactory explanation of why she might be in the broomshed of the first team casting spells at the brooms; and Agata demanded what was left of her wand and managed – with a masterly piece of ritual – to cast _priori incantatem_ on it. The nasty jinx was one that grew six inch thorns anywhere the broom reached just below blood temperature; long enough to penetrate the cushioning charm and to transfix hands entirely. The thorns vanished seconds after they had grown. It was a powerful spell and had required some considerable work and the sacrifice of a small creature as Agata managed to get out of Reynoult who had thought herself clever to use blood magic to fuel it, casting the killing curse only a breath before the thorn growing curse to dispatch the rabbit she had caught and using its death to fuel the follow up spell.

Agata hesitated to have another expulsion so soon; and this was nasty but was aimed at older children and the only unforgivable curse had been on a creature. She sent Claudette to the sick bay – making it clear it was in punishment – while she pondered what to do.

The first team meanwhile got out their real brooms, admired the illusory ones in the broom shed and the Asimov twins' succession of curses – they had left the Eulenspiegels out because it was a team thing not a marauder thing – which were truly ingenious. Agata Bacsó asked an explanation too.

"First the Jellied Furnunculous curse tied to the Avocado curse" said Zlatka "And then following that the electrical curse powered by the level of spell actually cast, so if it was a normal sort of tickling curse or hurling hex it would blow the wand up a little bit for up to about three days. So if it WAS Fraulein Reynoult she must have used some considerable kick to her spell."

"She did" said Agata dryly. "One cannot blame the first team for protecting their own brooms; I have no issues with your ingenious solution. Especially in light of the spell" and she explained what had been intended.

"That could actually kill if it hit a major artery; or kill a boy particularly from shock" said Jade quietly. "I take it you prefer not to expel?"

"I would like to avoid it" sighed Agata.

"She tried to offend against the first team; I have a suggestion" said Jade.

"Suggest" said Agata.

"It is monstrous! Is there any punishment bad enough?" demanded Frida Rundqvist.

Jade smiled.

"What are the ends of brooms made of?" she asked.

"Birch twigs of course" said Fraulein Rundqvist.

"Precisely" said Jade "Each of the team to hold a birch twig switch and make Reynoult run the gauntlet – once for each broom I'd say. She'll be sore for a week at least and maybe the lesson from her peers will go in better than a staff imposed punishment. Indeed, you might make it clear that how hard they hit will probably be a level of their disapproval."

"Excellent" approved Agata "You look puzzled Frida; are you not aware that the birch was once used for punishment for providing very painful whippings? I find it quite exquisitely poetic."

"And Reynoult will find it exquisitely painful" said Jade "And a lesson that more things than magic can cause pain though somehow the concept of treating muggles with respect over that lesson will pass Reynoult by; she IS rather dim."

It had also passed Rundqvist by and she goggled rather; but preferred not to draw Jade's sarcasm by asking questions. They had made up most of their differences from the previous year but Jade was never going to feel anything beyond amused contempt for Rundqvist; and Rundqvist was never going to understand how anyone would prefer Arithmancy to quidditch.

oOoOo

Meanwhile the team from Frankfurt arrived and had to be welcomed; and Braun the seeker was strutting since this year he was not facing that goblin sized runt of a seeker who had fooled him last year!

Zlatka and Zhanargul, being blooded, had decided that theirs was the job to fool the beaters, leaving a lot of the scoring to Stiv; though by no means all. They happily back passed – a difficult skill that earned applause from the spectators – and wove and dove seeking to confuse beaters and keeper alike. Gisela and Sigismundus were not perhaps the strongest of beaters but were fast and accurate in their bludger placement; and Jaromir enjoyed the challenge of playing keeper.

Zlatko was loving flying on his borrowed Millenium Firebolt; it was more responsive than anything he had ever flown on before! And how easy it was on so good a broom to outfly the pedestrian Braun who was positively bovine in approach!

Zlatko might be described as having a warped imagination; and he gave it full rein in leading Braun around; including, being a skinny youth, right through one of the goal rings which he flattened himself to his broom to negotiate; Braun failed to see it.

The game was stopped for several minutes to remove the cursing Frankfurt seeker from the school end's goal; he was well and truly stuck. And the crowd roared with laughter, fuelling his impotent anger that made it even harder to get him out.

"Goodness, doesn't he KNOW how to apparate?" said Gisela in scorn.

Once Braun had had the idea suggested he managed to apparate to the ground and the match could restart, the school non-apparating zone not extending to the pitch and the dressing rooms, for the convenience of the visiting teams.

There was nothing in the rules preventing seekers going through the goal rings after all; it did not add to the score. Flacking, or sticking a portion of the anatomy through the goal hoop to punch the quaffle out applied only to the keeper; and only to prevent the quaffle going through; and nor did it come under haversacking, keeping a hand on the quaffle to be sure it went through the goal hoop. Jade laughingly suggested to Rundqvist that they should call it 'squelching' or flying with intent to cause the seeker to be in a really tight place. Rundqvist replied seriously that fooling the opposing seeker was a valid tactic; and Jade gave up.

Braun remounted complaining loudly to anyone who would listen that Durmstrang seekers were unfair because they did unexpected things; and Zlatka remarked loudly to Zhanargul that such complaints sounded like the bully who had been so well routed by last year's seeker who complained that the English cheated in duels because they did not need word or wand.

"Indeed, it is the way of the inadequates to blame others for their own deficiencies always" said Zhanargul. "It is however kind of Frankfurt to play their comedy seeker rather than bring a real one as he is most amusing for the lower school."

This upset Braun even more and Zlatko hardly had to go to much effort to ditch him on the ground with the Wronski Feint; and with Braun unable – or unwilling – to be revived, Zlatko had the field to himself to collect the snitch and end the game with a solid win for Durmstrang.

There was a strong feeling amongst the Frankfurters that they would not want to play Durmstrang again; especially when a stray conversation led to the revelation that Zlatko was in the fifth only and would be seeker for a further two years.

This came up because Ivanova, lately retired from the Bulgarian National team was there scouting and asked Zlatko what he planned to do at the end of the year; and Zlatko, who could be very literal when he wanted, said that he would enjoy the holidays before embarking on his ZH classes. He added that he had no desire for a career in quidditch; and since he was shown to be the same age as Sekunder Singh of Hogwarts who had already been scouted by Bulgaria, Ivanova did not pursue the matter but wished him well in his chosen career.

oOoOo

Once the visitors had been got rid of, Agata saw Claudette Reynoult – still green and tentacled – in her office and told her scathingly that any girl who both used such repellent spells that could, had the thorns grown in infortuitous places, have resulted in the deaths by shock of sundry of the team, and who thought so little of her school that she was prepared to shame it in front of outsiders in the form of the visiting team, deserved nothing but expulsion; but that if Fraulein Reynoult thought she might actually manage to outgrow such tricks below the notice of most people over about thirteen then perhaps she would consider taking an alternate punishment.

"It wasn't fair those fifth years being placed in the team over me!" whined Claudette.

"Fair? What is fair is that the best players should play for the honour of the school" said Agata crisply. "Fraulein Rundqvist chooses the best players to do our duty too in giving the visiting teams the best possible game. Evidently she felt you did not come up to the standard of the younger ones; and having seen you play a lazy and careless game in the second team this year as last, I can quite see why. Do you then think it fair to attack those chosen when they had no say in the matter save the fact that they played well? Or is it that you are too much a coward to attack Fraulein Rundqvist as a member of staff?"

"It wasn't an attack, I just wanted to pay them back for being picked, it was just a joke!" said Claudette.

"Don't you LISTEN to me you rude little girl?" cried Agata "You could have caused DEATH if your thorns had hit a major artery; and six inch thorns is, in my book, well beyond a JOKE! I'm sure you would complain fast enough if a classmate drove such through your hands and more tender parts of your anatomy!"

Claudette dug her toe into the carpet and looked down, with nothing to say; she knew she would be the first to complain if such had been perpetrated on her.

"I – I didn't think" she muttered.

"Fraulein Reynoult, you are old enough to learn to think" said Agata "You are an adult. Do this sort of thing outside of school and it WILL be classed as common magical assault and the Vehmgerichten WILL be involved. A possible tragedy was averted because the team had decided to set up anti-jinx wards in case any juniors played silly tricks; since eleven and twelve year olds may be forgiven for doing stupid things without thinking. Really I CANNOT see how a girl of eighteen can be so irresponsible! Perhaps I should expel you and suggest that your parents have you confined as incapable through some mental illness that prevents you from having the mental capacity above that of a small child!"

That hurt and shocked the girl.

Claudette begged hard to be permitted to stay to complete her ZH's; her father would take a dim view of her being expelled, especially so close to her exams!

"Very well; but your punishment will be harsh" said Agata. "And I will place it in the hands of the team against whom you so badly offended so unfairly because you were too cowardly to take up the matter with Fraulein Rundqvist."

"I DID ask her why she had done this and she said she had no time for – for me because I did not play to her standard; but I am OLDER than them, I OUGHT to have my chance!"

"Older? Not it seems mentally" said Agata coldly "You sound like a spoilt poppet of about six. And to take out your toddler temper tantrums on those who had no say in your own failure to win a place on the team is despicable. Well, they will let you know their thoughts on the subject; you are to run the gauntlet once for each of the threatened brooms, seven times, and they will strike you with birch twig bundles; and how hard they strike should let you know how much they blame you."

"Tell them to make me a normal colour again and get rid of these tentacles!" demanded Claudette.

"Dear me how rude you are; as you make that a demand not a humble request I most certainly shall NOT ask them to remove the curses; moreover you will continue in that state to the end of the term and unless you can humbly beg the quidditch first team to reverse the effects at the end of the term, I fear you will have to take your exams thus. I should think that not being able to dejinx yourself will drop your marks in the Dark Arts exam, but that's YOUR problem. The solution is in your hands. Now go to the Hall; the team are ready to enact discipline on you."

oOoOo

Claudette screamed a lot and begged as the team ruthlessly whipped her – they were very angry – and refused to run more than once each way down the gauntlet; so Zlatko cast stinging hexes at her feet until she had to move and used them to chase her up and down for the required seven times; and then she might go to the sick bay to have her raw and bleeding skin treated with salves, but NO magical healing as decreed by the head. It was a nasty trick she planned; and deserved a lot of nasty pain to make her think.

"Don't mess with us again you bitch" said Zlatka "You are foul."

Claudette fled sobbing, suffering consequences for the first time; and if she did not really see it as merciful, Agata did come to see her to explain that perhaps the realisation that actions had consequences MIGHT stop her another time before she did something that could land her in Nurmengard.

Whether it went in or not Agata was not sure; but one might hope that it made the foolishly selfish and so bullying girl think a little.

Agata wrote to the girl's parents explaining what had happened and what action she had taken, emphasising that she had decided not to expel the girl in the hopes that she might learn; and adding that this was only the last and most serious in a series of discipline problems that Claudette had caused in her school career. It might be a fruitless effort if the parents were such that encouraged bullying as an expression of supposed superior types; but in that case, Claudette had shown herself to be the inferior, being jinxed so well by a proxy jinx by youngsters two years younger than her that she should by such standards accept herself to be the inferior.

Of course, such types considered being bested to be unfair; because in their world view they were supposed to be the best. Well it was about time that such childishness was nipped in the bud and they should learn to grow up and take a realistic view of the world.

oOoOo

The following weekend saw a match against the Cracow Crows; who were somewhat better than the Frankfurt Sausages, as naughty Jade dubbed them.

Zlatko did his best but the Cracow seeker was very good, a skinny young woman with muscles like whipcord and cat like reflexes; and Zlatko voiced the opinion that if she was a cat animagus he would not be surprised. The school lost heavily but it was an enjoyable match and as the Crows were ready to discuss points over the subsequent feast, all declared they had learned a lot. There would be some practices of the Cracow formations!

As it happened, the Cracow Crows were well on their way to be Polish champions and several of their players were at least reserves for the Polish national team; which had reached the semi finals of the World Cup. Bulgaria had dropped down the ratings with the loss of Viktor Krumm from the team; and there was a lot of autograph collecting going on. The world cup was to be played this summer holidays, for with the use of Belsornia as a venue more matches were possible and it was to take place every three years. Jade had mixed feelings about the impending world cup; David Fraser, who was in many ways her biggest big brother, had been picked to referee it; so he was going to have a busy year, following that with taking on the Headship of Hogwarts School. It was a dangerous business to referee an international game; but David merely laughed and said that although the ref was not permitted to jinx the players whatever the provocation there was nothing in the rules to stop him turning into a dragon if they got unruly.

It might be rather a drastic move but secretly Jade would rather like to see it happen!

oOoOo

Claudette Reynoult was a more subdued character after her birching; especially as the head had insisted that she attend all meals and her lessons in the state of being green and tentacular; which the girl felt perhaps worse in some ways than her painful body. She asked her crony Calvina Leckkessel to help her undo the jinx; but even working together the girls were unable to remove the effect; and nor might they be expected to since Zlatka and Zlatko had used a complex little chant and had named Claudette ritually as their intended victim.

The twins were much impressed by the success of the electricity spell and its variable nature according to the spell power cast into it; and Jade made them write it up for the Marauding room. It really was a most useful defensive jinx to perform at the same level of retaliation as any curse cast back at it; and the ECC held discussion about how to tailor it to attack the caster rather than just the wand, though Jade declared THAT easy, and the careful aim to destroy the wand only was a subtlety of considerable skill.

The twins were much pleased to have such praise.

"It seemed wrong to aim it at the caster because we KNOW how intemperate the silly cow is" said Zlatko "That it might have killed or seriously wounded her, and that we did not wish on our consciences. It was ticklish, though, getting the other jinxes to cast at her and the electrical curse to cast only at her wand; we almost bust a gut and split our tongues in half chanting it up."

"Worth it" said Jade "And means you have the same method available in more deadly form if need be when setting up major wards against the likes of the fey or dark wizards. And by the by, will you Asimovs be ready to go against our favourite lich in the holidays? I really need Zlatka to divine for me and it hardly seems fair then to not invite you along."

"What about us?" demanded Xanthippe.

"I should think your parents will get snippy if you don't go home for the holidays as doubtless they are expecting" said Jade "Sorry; you'll be with us in spirit and backing the Asimovs but somehow I don't think your mum and dad are going to go for a field trip killing dark wizards."

"She's right of course" said Xanthe, gloomily "Though NEXT year we'll be staying the hols for revision; just don't kill all the dark wizards you people until we have a chance to have a bash at them!"

Jade laughed.

"I remember saying much the same thing when I was about nine" she said "There may not be many megalomaniacs that make it enough to scare the general public out there, but there'll always be plenty of dark wizards. My kid sister in Hogwarts has told me they have a wicked uncle of one of the first years there too; the marauders there have plans to entrap him, and doubtless will succeed; that's the Belle Marauders in the fifth there who have taken main responsibility for him."

The Eulenspiegels brightened; it was good to know that a source of dark wizards was not likely to dry up and leave them bereft of suitable enemies!

oOoOo

Claudette Reynoult lingered behind one Dark Arts lesson to ask,

"Oh Frau Von Luytens, can't YOU remove this curse?"

"I CAN; but I shall not" said Jade "It was left on you as part of your punishment because you did not ask nicely to have it removed but rather made rude demand of Madam Bacsó. She was offended by such ill manners; and no small surprise. Even asking me, there was no mannerly 'please' in your request; I hope you do better when you ask the quidditch team for its removal at the end of term. Your behaviour was stupid; perhaps looking stupid may help you to reflect on the potential consequences of your actions before you do anything so stupid again."

"You've always been rotten to me! I don't believe you can do it – you just pretend to be powerful to ULP!" as she rose in the air and was held immobile without any apparent bonds.

"Claudette Reynoult, on our first encounter you were rude to me; and then you showed yourself to be more than unmannerly but also dishonourable when you attempted to cast jinxes at my back" said Jade "I bested you then with ease; as too I bested Nachtigall, who had to have the curse I laid on him broken by Professor Snape as the best curse breaker in Europe. I am not so small a person that I feel a need to demonstrate every day such little power as I have accrued in case people forget I should be accorded the fear such little people demand. You KNOW what nightmares I can draw forth from your own thoughts; and whilst any idiot can lay a curse and it takes skill to remove one, I can tell you that I understand the form of the curse on you perfectly well. It is, after all, one I have taught. If you have not taken enough notice in class to be able to reverse it, I fear it proves that your chances of passing a ZH in Dark Arts may be as remote as your chance of getting onto the first quidditch team. Let me give you the hint that you are well known to be childish in the extreme and to have the childish concept of 'getting back' at those you perceive – rightly or wrongly – to be the source of your chagrin, especially if you can do so in a way that seems to bring little risk to yourself because you are also known as a coward, like most bullies. Let us just say that whilst the team wanted to make sure no silly kids tampered with their brooms they DID suspect that you might behave rather like one of the stupider first years; and so they knew your name. And, incidentally, had you managed to overcome the tamper-proof jinxes on the broom Zlatko Asimov is using I do hope you'd have been prepared to buy me a new Firebolt; as it's MY broom, that I loan him for the honour of the school; as well as to replace the brooms of the rest of the team. And some of them have brooms quite almost as expensive as my Millenium Firebolt; which would set you back a cool five thousand Galleons. I should think your sabotage would have cost you around twenty thousand Galleons for the seven brooms plus the medical bills, even if not the cost of a funeral or two, for the injuries incurred; and as you are an adult I should have been running a class action law suit against you, you know. Then with unlawful injuries, on top of your debts we are talking perhaps fifteen years in Nurmengard. Don't you think that looking ridiculous for a few weeks and having sore arms and legs and back is a relatively low price to pay?"

Claudette flushed scarlet then went white.

"Could – could all that have happened?" she asked in a whisper.

Jade lowered her to the ground and released the bonds.

"Oh yes, my good kid" said Jade "Only you're NOT a kid; and that's the point. You've been an adult for more than a year; you're turned eighteen. And adults have to take responsibility. You are still at school; but in a few months time you'll be out in the world and if you haven't learned self discipline by then it won't be the merciful discipline of the school that will catch up with your intemperate outbursts it will be the Départment de Justice that deals with you. And at that not so harsh as had you come under German law for hurting the kids on the team – who are, most of them, minors, and therefore you would be dealt with yet more harshly. I don't know what Fraulein Rundqvist said to you; but I can guarantee it wasn't tactful because Rundqvist has the tact of an erumpent mating. But she is passionate about quidditch and she wants the best. And frankly, you do NOT come across that passionate yourself or she might have played you even if the two fifth formers were slightly better. I know I can't talk; I love quidditch but I'm not passionate; and Rundqvist and I had our arguments because I thought it more important to teach the exam years last year than go to practice; I am fortunate to be good enough to pick up the game having missed several practises and still play well enough to be better than most, it's part of being a Malfoy. I have the talent born in and I know that's frustrating to see for those who are more passionate than me, work harder and still don't do as well. Mea culpa; only I can't help it. You COULD have helped looking like a stuffed owl on a pole; and you could have taken whatever Rundqvist said – that might even have been more tactless than calling you a stuffed owl on a pole – and determined to show her in practise that you COULD outperform the kids. But instead you chose to sulk. And to punish those whose fault it was not. And you know, you can't DO that. You'd have had more sympathy if you'd jinxed Rundqvist, though I daresay you'd have incurred a pretty stiff punishment; but it's not as bad as picking on younger kids. You are at the top of the school and it is assumed that you should be more able than those two years younger than you; and so any actions against younger kids is bullying and is perceived in school rules and incidentally in law as unfair and so banned; that the Asimov twins are extremely able and the other two fifth formers pretty able is actually your very good luck, because all that has happened to you is a few jinxes and a sore hide. You owe them a debt of gratitude that they have caught you out WITHOUT it becoming a legal issue. And you owe them the apology for making it necessary to set up this jinx trap. If any of what I've been saying has gone in and you realise what a silly LITTLE girl you've been and are ready to grow up, if you go to the Asimovs and apologise really graciously, with the dignity of an adult and tell them that you have never been forced to consider consequences before they MIGHT even relent and let you off before the end of term. I WISH I had known you from the first year; I could have helped you so much to lose the false front of pride and pomposity that makes you look such a pratt; because I might have found out why you have so much need to look big that you must needs throw your weight around. It's not that you feel embarrassed that you are poor in a rich kids' school because you are well enough off."

"Rich yes – but not high born!" cried Claudette "Papa is a grocer – that is what they say. He sells high class foodstuffs and potion ingredients but to THEM – people like YOU, a von, he is but a grocer!"

"Ah. And enough of those with some birth make you feel low? NOW we're getting somewhere" said Jade in satisfaction; this might be a breakthrough. She went on, "You ass, I don't give a hoot what your father does; I used the epithet 'low born' for your behaviour not your background and because I had to impress myself on Odessa spies as someone to try to recruit so I could work against them. And frankly I think there's more merit in a man that works hard at his job –a rather necessary job – than in one who is an idle dilettante. One of my friends had a father who was a carter; my cousin is an apothecary in a poor neighbourhood, another cousin – I have a second cousin who put himself about rather – is the child of a madam who worked her way up in the business from casino dancer and part time whore. The cousin herself avoided that business like the plague and sells second hand goods from a stall in the street. She's no less my cousin and a friend then the wealthy Malfoys who work more because they feel it proper not to be idle rather than because they need the money. And any TRUE gentleman or lady – whether named von or otherwise – judges on BEHAVIOUR not on birth. And I have despised you because you've gone out of your way to act in any way BUT ladylike; a lady is courteous and fair minded and loyal to dependants and is NOT rude to underlings because that's just crass. You push the castle elves about and that's just SO low; if you want me to respect you, Claudette, you had better learn to behave in a way that will make me do so."

Claudette stared.

"REALLY? But – but people like Nachtigall sneered…."

"And there is what evidence to suggest that Nachtigall is a gentleman how?" said Jade "He and his father betrayed their blood – and by that I mean their family, not the generally accepted stuff about blood traitors – and so acted in the ultimately ungentlemanly fashion. He was a crass, gross fool. He may have thrown his weight around and been able to keep people down for having a father well up in Odessa – a ship of fools if you like! – but he was never in any respect a gentleman; and nor was Ignaz Von Frettchen who has been, let me tell you, disowned by his uncle and stripped of the right to use the 'von' for his poor behaviour. And not just at school though that WAS the final straw. Herzog Eduard Von Frettchen IS a gentleman; and his bride is a lovely girl who happens to be pure blood though I fancy it would not matter to him, whose father is a vermin catcher for the ministry; and there are plenty would consider that lower than a grocer though it is JUST as necessary, as I found out when visiting the property I inherited to discover that most of the wizarding world who do NOT go to school haven't a clue how to dedoxify a room or rid themselves of chizpurfles and certainly cannot deal with a boggart. You are the cream of society because you have had an education – a very good education. And your father is one to take pride in for his industry – and you DO take pride in him or your patronus would not be based on his name, a lion."

"I love my papa" said Claudette "He's going to be so angry with me!"

"The write and tell him you got some muddle headed ideas and that you need his help not his anger to help you grow up" said Jade "You have time for that to reach him before the holidays; ask him to come and visit you to talk about things. There's nothing like dads if you have a good relationship with them. I'm sorry it took this much to get you thinking but I AM glad you finally are; it's been worrying me how to reach you and find out why you've been such a miserable little cow. And you can't take exception to that, it's as true and as insulting both at once as you calling me the poison dwarf" she added. "we're quits on the name calling; and now perhaps you can stop resenting me for having stolen a von for my name – or rather, acquired in dodgy circumstances – and we can get on better so you'll do better in the exam without sulking to spite me and ending up harming your own chances."

Claudette flushed; it did sound childish – and stupid – put that way.

"What do you mean, dodgy circumstances?" she asked.

"Oh, I'm blood bonded to the rightful Von Strang heir who wants nothing to do with it; by those means I obtained the blood to prove blood right. I had to have an in so I could bring down Odessa; and Erich said I might as well go the whole hog and run all the businesses and property his father had owned because he's far too busy teaching defence against the dark arts in an English school and could care less about German property. It's a nice castle though and will make a great school for muggle born kids and goblins. And then watch the fools with false ideals fall back rather than fawning on a 'von'; because they're shallow. Your dad I bet doesn't refuse to sell to goblins; because goblins in Belgium and France have a better deal than in Germany. And I'm as happy to sell education. And if he has goblin clients who are wealthy I need some wealthy kids to subsidise the poor clever ones; so I'd take it as a favour if you send any along to me."

"I never know what to make of you" said Claudette.

"Well I mean well; I guess that's about all the explanation I can give" said Jade "Now hoof it to the Asimovs and make with the nice apology."

oOoOo

Claudette managed to stumble through an apology to the Asimovs; and to explain that she really had not thought through the consequences of her actions; and the twins took pity on her and raised the jinx.

They added a homily about better late than never with the growing up which made Claudette flush; but she gritted her teeth and endured it.

The thought of being financially liable for her actions had shocked her; and that had led her to listen properly to Jade informing her that Nurmengard had too been a very real possibility.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

Easter was fairly late that year and Jade gave up trying to explain how it was calculated using the phases of the moon after certain other ceremonies and muttered,

"I am uncomfortable with this Jewish Ritual" because it amused her to find an apposite quote when fighting a loosing battle of not drowning in a sea of 'why's from eleven year olds; and as she was about to go against a dark wizard resurrected from an archaeological situation, somehow Indiana Jones seemed appropriate.

When the majority of the school had gone home, Jade accordingly dressed in jeans and a blouse, transfigured an ordinary witches hat into something akin to the disreputable object worn by Harrison Ford and used _serpensortia_ with a permanency charm because symmetry was symmetry and she was NOT Indiana Jones, who disliked snakes in any case, but coiled about her waist there was the suggestion of his whip.

Indiana Jones never wore New Rocks either.

But at least with the hat there was no chance anyone would mistake her for Lara Croft.

oOoOo

Zlatka was ready to dowse; and Jade passed her the knife to ponder on. Having belonged to Abaris for as long as it had, there was bound to be something about it that remained that could give a dowser a clue.

And the map globe was scrolling, moving, projecting; and a small light showed as Zlatka's divining rods came together to project it to the place where the knife had its counterpart.

"Baghdad? Well if there's a place he can get away with gratuitous violence, that's it" said Jade "With the current muggle conflicts and political and religious murders one oddball sacrifice or a dozen ain't going to show up. Hats, my children; it's a hot place and I don't want you dying of sunstroke on me, no I'm not joking."

Those going were the Asimov twins, Jaromir, Lazlo, Clovis and Tildi and of course Wulf. And Jade debated wearing a robe to blend in with the local women, decided that she could NEVER blend in with Arab women and stuck to the jeans. With her blonde hair she was obviously a Westerner and would either be avoided or likely to be marked for attack in any case.

"Be aware" said Jade "The women of this place tend to be treated like valued but non sentient house pets and are supposed not to show their faces and to cover them up. We aren't going to pretend to be locals; it'll either make people avoid us or they'll try to kill us. Use non lethal force."

oOoOo

They apparated smoothly in. Jaromir could apparate but they linked hands anyway and made sure they all landed in the same place. Zlatka had her divining rods and the knife.

The heat beat down upon their heads and Jade thought of Sparhawk's description of his time spent in such searing heat in David Eddings' book. It really WAS like hammer blows. They moved into such little shade as there was; which was precious little and Zlatko muttered,

"By the powers, you made no joke about dying of this heat; how can people LIVE here?"

"Because they are used to it" said Jade "Zlatka, which way?"

Zlatka wavered; then pointed with her rods.

The first encounter they had was with a patrol of American soldiers; and Jade said a brief, ugly word and smiled at the sergeant in command of the patrol.

He smiled back; she was worth looking at.

"Now then ma'am, I'm going to have to ask to see your pass; reporters aren't supposed to be in these parts" he said.

Jade smiled brightly.

"These aren't the droids you're looking for" she said "We can go about our business and move along"

"These aren't the droids we're looking for" said the sergeant obediently to her voice control "You can go about your business; move along!"

They moved, hastily.

"What's droids?" asked Jaromir as they got round the corner.

"Mechanical men to do work; a hypothetical construct from muggle fiction. I used a famous muggle quote to enhance the power of my voice control" said Jade. "I'd love to be a fly on the wall when the report of that goes to his colonel" she added, chuckling.

She reflected, on consideration, that a British sergeant would almost certainly report the incident however bad it made him look; and American sergeant almost certainly would not. Many Americans HATED things that were out of the ordinary; almost as much as Germans. They had dodged down a couple of back alleys anyway in case the sergeant had the strength of mind to turn back and look for them; and Zlatka plied her divining rods again.

The half dozen Arabs with Kalashnikovs that glided out of houses did NOT look friendly.

The apparent leader said something harsh that presumably meant that the interlopers were to go with him.

Jade smiled brightly again.

"_Expelliarmus_" she said.

All the kalashnikovs flew from the hands of their wielders; Jade was that powerful.

"_Accio_ AK" she said, and the nearest flew to her hands.

She pointed it at the shocked insurgents.

"I count to ten" she said, checking her weapon was ready to fire. "One…two….three…."

The inference was obvious even if the words were not understood; and the erstwhile enemies fled howling some word that Jade guessed was 'witchcraft'.

Well they were right on that score.

"Pick up the AKs" she said. "Do NOT try to do anything with them; we'll hide all but this one somewhere."

"Are they then some kind of weapon?" asked Jaromir.

"This is the weapon that wiped out droves of Odessa soldiery; and with appropriate modifications to add magical effects their werewolves too" said Jade. "Treat the baby of Comrade Kalashnikov with due respect my children; and pass me the ammo. This bit" she added, removing the magazine from one to show them how. Extra ammunition never came amiss.

Zlatka had a direction by this time and moved off, rods at the ready, Jade on point preceding her, doubling back if Zlatka had to change direction to take account of the lie of the streets.

They were soon in the narrowest and meanest streets; and eyes watched them constantly. Jade muttered a chant and made sure to keep chanting to hold up a physical shield against supersonic as well as subsonic missiles; this was the sort of place where strangers were shot first and the corpse used for augury of what it wanted after. She was using Yiddish to chant with; Jade was like that sometimes.

Once she was certain she had the shield up, Jade held it by whistling the theme from Indiana Jones because it seemed right. It dragged the shield along with them which was what she had intended.

Zlatka stopped at a low door.

Jade left off whistling; the shield should stay put for a while, at least until disrupted by the first bullet. She looked around; and pounced.

The small boy was hiding in a pile of rubbish; and was doing a fairly successful job of it.

Jade gazed intently into his eyes and learned his language; and transferred German to him.

"Who lives here? When did the scary man come? What do you know?" she asked, again using voice control to prompt speech. The child sobbed.

"It is my mother's house and I was out getting supper when he came; and I did not go in because I heard a man's voice and thought mother had a client and they do not like a boy around; but then mother started screaming and I looked in and he had tied her up and he was cutting her open and – and I ran away!"

The poor child was no more than six years old.

He was also, from surreptitious wand work, as muggle as could be; well, something would be done to care for him as he was probably now an orphan.

"Wait outside; we have come to kill the scary man" said Jade.

"But you are only a woman!" said the boy.

"And what means that?" shrugged Jade, hefting her Kalashnikov in the professional manner of one well used to the weapon. "Salaam brat; your mother will be avenged by a woman as is only right."

And then she exploded the door inward.

The woman still moaned feebly; Abaris was taking his time draining her life a little at a time to allow his ritual to work. Abaris was chanting, deeply immersed in his ritual as coloured bands of light flowed from the dying woman into his own body, almost in a trance like state that the most complex of chants engendered. He scarcely even registered the explosion of the door, certainly could not react in time as the young wizards and witches burst in on him, wands in hand. And then Jade was drawing on her Germanic bloodsibs, and the scar blazed with white fire as she hurled the lightening curse at Abaris, absently linking with Wulf that he throw up a lightening conductor not to burn the house down around them.

It was spectacularly successful; the lich was himself a creature of magic, held together by enchantment.

Several thousand volts passing through his undead body did more than char it; it undid every last charm that had created it and the two thousand year old desiccated corpse crumbled into dust.

There was a small girl bound as well, a year or two younger than the boy; and the woman's womb was exposed with the dead baby within it.

Jade removed the foetus; it would only complicate matters and if she was to have any chance at all of saving the woman she could do without complication.

Then she began chanting. She did not need a projection to tell her where the damage was; she had read about rituals of this sort where the life force was gradually drained; it had to be slow to enhance the pain of the victim which enhanced the ability to use the ebbing life on the part of a seriously dark wizard. And if he was ready to do this, Jade had no compunction about killing the lich.

The little boy sidled in.

"What are you doing to my mother?" he cried running to Jade to hammer her with small fists. Clovis caught him.

"Child, thy mother may yet live; the good Frau is very powerful and may yet save her but not if thou disturbest her" she said using a form of address to a child or inferior to enhance the likelihood of unquestioned obedience. "Cease thy wailing lest it kill thy mother".

The boy gulped and was silent.

Zlatko and Zlatka, Jaromir, Lazlo and Wulf were assisting Jade with basic healing chants; and observing her techniques to learn from. Jade used power from the absent blood groupers to pour into the woman to replenish her almost absent life force.

"Boy, call her" she said roughly.

The small boy complied; his little sister, untied by Tildi, was too terrified and traumatised to make a sound; and the little elf was cuddling her. Jade had little doubt that her fear had fed the ritual too; and that she would have been next to die. Clovis, not a chanter, was searching the clothes that were all that remained of the dead lich to remove anything dangerous and of the wizarding world, even if as it seemed likely they had been disenchanted by electricity; as the creature also had a pack that seemed to contain most of his treasures he stuffed the wand and amulet of protection against efreet into that to take back.

And the ugly wounds on the Arab woman healed; and her breathing became laboured and then easier; and her heartbeat stabilised. Jade sank to a squat.

"She'll do" she said. "Can you hear me, little sister?"

The woman's eyes flickered open.

"I – I am still in my home? Have I not died and gone to paradise?"

"You are alive" said Jade "The evil one who did this to you is dead; your brave son has helped call you back to care for him and his little sister. Clovis, see if the creep has any gold in his pack; they should have compensation."

Clovis nodded and searched.

"Here is strange coinage" he said.

Jade glanced.

"Lumme, it's normal Ancient Greek coinage of his time some of it" she said "That's worth far more than the value of the gold. Clovis, take it to Lucius and ask him for a fair amount for the woman's compensation in gold, perhaps in jewellery; and he can deal with selling the coins."

"How can you sell coins?" asked Jaromir.

"Because muggle coinage changes more often and over different countries and so it has value for being rare and collectible" said Jade. "She could get murdered for anything this valuable; and people trying to find out where it came from because of treasure hunters. Lucius will know exactly what to do."

Lucius did; and Clovis returned with heavy gold bracelets that he presented to the woman.

"This for your trouble; because we would have wished to have found this evil before you were troubled by it" said Jade. "Salaam little sister; may you and your family be well."

"Salaam, noble stranger" said the woman , bemused. "Insh'Allah we will be very well with this kind gift."

Jade reflected that though 'Insh'Allah' was said to endorse everything, 'if it is the will of God,' it was more likely to be the woman's own good sense or otherwise that would do her well and hoped she would have a sufficiency.

oOoOo

And then they apparated back to school and examined the belongings of Abaris.

The amulet of protection against Efreeti was, as Jade said, apart from now being only a decorative disc of metal, only of use against those of the fey who chose that form; because in the time of Abaris it was not known that they and Genii were but forms of the fey.

"Fortunately, once the fey tie themselves into a form to be summoned, they find disassociating themselves from that form quite hard because it is their one tie on substance" she explained.

"There's a crystal ball in here" said Zlatka "Why didn't he use that? He'd surely only keep it as a treasured item if he was a diviner; surely he could have used it to tell that you were coming for him?"

"For one thing, divination is a bit hit and miss; always in motion is the future" said Jade "And for another, you have to kind of understand the nature of the future before you can actually tap a backwards memory from it; and he's having enough trouble adapting to the future that is the present because we're so way into his future that any future he sees might even be the past."

"Run that past us slowly" said Zlatko.

"Space and time make up the four dimensions of the universe" said Jade "And there's a degree of mutability about it that enables some people to remember as it were into the future; or ONE future. There are many paths which are changed as decisions are made; choosing to believe in a prophecy may make that prophecy path be the true one. Now to deliberately look for the future – rather than being a true seer and falling into a trance which is no bloody good unless someone's there to write down what you said – you have to have a feel of time passing and to know exactly how you relate to the nowness of now; to have some idea of what may happen in the thenness of then, as you might say. I'm no diviner; never even took it to the level of ZP so I'm translating the odd stuff I've heard from the more esoteric into language anyone might understand. They have technical terms but that'd be like talking to twelve year olds about assimilative correlation and even so half of you don't have a clue of ZH level transfiguration so I might as well be talking Scythian. And I can't remember the proper terms anyway because I was never that interested. Anyway, Abaris had to adapt to the idea that the world had moved on more than two thousand years since he was last around; and even if he'd got his head round that intellectually, it was hard to assimilate deep down where it counts; so he couldn't readily, I believe, connect with our future and his true future because to him the last couple of millennia in the past was still in his heart the future."

"I think I kind of followed that" said Zlatko. "Twin?"

Zlatka nodded.

"I guess I'm going to have to get books and study on my own time" she said.

"'Fraid so; I can't really help you" said Jade "Unless you do a post ZH year at Prince Peak and get chummy with Madam Gimlet. She's very good. And she's used to dippy girls taking it as a soft option so she'll be glad of someone with talent who actually wants to learn; and you could push chanting further too if you wanted, and general academe."

Zlatko brightened.

"We have a couple of years to work on our parents over that" he said.

oOoOo

Jade contacted Draco so he could tell his Cairo contact that the nutcase had been finally caught up with in Baghdad and had received a rather summary death sentence; true enough and, too believable.

"Of course if he has more then one horcrux-like item he might return" said Draco "You know; 'return of the mummy', cue Imhotep."

"I rather like Imhotep" said Jade mildly "MUCH nicer character; Ankh-sun-amun was a silly moo. Abaris really had lost all his humanity in becoming undead; and actually if he'd had another horcrux I bet it would have been among his treasured items and I don't think that mere electrocution would have disabled it; and none of the amulets and stuff we took back had any power left in them once I let loose a substation worth of wand lightening. Even his wand was a bit pathetic and it takes a lot to phase a wand unless you actually ground the electricity through it. Laurel, phoenix feather core incidentally. I'd say that the knife was much more and much less than a horcrux; not a phylactery per se or he'd have died when we killed the knife, if one may borrow from Dungeons and Dragons which may be fictional but kind of borrows from the very little shit there is written about liches and such. Shit, I don't even know if he needs a phylactery and if so whether it got destroyed when I electrocuted him; Scarpin's revellaspell didn't reveal anything about the stuff we brought back. I'll melt down all the metal and break the stones as a matter of precaution and send Clovis and Lazlo to look again at his tomb for anything that might be a phylactery; I don't know if I believe in it but let's be paranoid."

"Damn right" said Draco "I'll nip over and assist them; I'm a better chanter than either."

The report came that nothing that could be any kind of phylactery or hidden life or horcrux of any kind existed in the tomb; they used the summoning charm as well as going through the place with a fine tooth comb and a chanted form of Scarpin's revellaspell that would make to glow anything with any form of life or enchantment; they uncovered a recent colony of ants and that was it. Draco had dug out a book from Malfoy Manor on the kinds of undead which stated that the lich or thinking undead required constant sacrifice of life force or it would go torpid and return to a death-like state until it was fed by some means with life force, whether by deliberate sacrifice through the agency of a third person or by some pre-enchanted means. There was no mention of any hidden life or phylactery and as the instructions for how to prepare your body for this form were fairly specific Jade felt sure that they were safe enough.

"Well it was a learning experience" she said to Draco. Draco ruffled her hair; he was one of Jade's special people. As Jade was a special person to Draco; when Krait had first made him come to terms with himself he had revelled in having Jade and Lydia as adoring little sisters who followed him around and thought him wonderful and it had helped him feel good enough about himself to learn true self confidence. Knowing that he needed to be strong to help look after them helped him plumb his own depths for a well of bravery; and they both meant a lot to him.

"Well, you should have quiet exams at least, our kid" he said.

oOoOo

Jade concentrated now on a few extra classes for those people who were to take the chanting OWL in a single year, especially Jaromir; whose parents would never consider paying for him to go to Prince Peak for a year. And Jade hesitated to suggest that he took a year there without paying; Jaromir was a proud youth who would scorn to learn on charity.

"What are you going to do, set up as a freelance curse breaker?" she asked.

"If I pass the Arithmancy" he said "With that, and Dark Arts and the added dimension of chanting I should be quite good at it; and there's nothing to stop me reading more on chanting and practising."

"It's what most of the Hogwarts crowd did under the guidance of my younger sister Lydia until dad had trained up a chanting professor for them" said Jade "Then there's a ready made job teaching chanting in Beauxbatons or Hellibores I guess if you get sick of removing boils and pustules from little Hans who probably deserves them."

"Cynic" laughed Jaromir "I was rather intending to go for the grand curses that only chanting can break."

"Oh good ambition; but they aren't so common that you won't have to earn your bread and butter too" said Jade. "You could do worse than attach yourself to a firm of Anwalten so they can offer the added service of curse breaking before suing the one who did the cursing; I can recommend you to a small firm, with limited education but they do a wide range of work so it's more interesting. Perhaps acting as a freelance on a small retainer?"

"It's a thought. If you give me an address I can go and ask" said Jaromir.

"I'll do more than that; I'll write to them and recommend you" said Jade "The great grandson of the firm is to go to Prince Peak for NEWTs; I stand his sponsor. I'm a great believer in nepotism and feudality – so long as it's done properly and not abused. And now you know Clovis better, who's going to be teaching here from next year in my stead, you know HE'LL take care of your sister."

"And THAT will be worth knowing; those five small imps of yours in the first have taken her rather in hand too."

"Ah yes; and that brings me to something else" said Jade. The Five had talked to her about bringing in Bronislava, even though she was a girl, because she needed looking out for; and Jade had told them that if they recommended her she would certainly consider it. "They want her to be a Marauder with them; and that involves blood magic. Will you consider joining with us and being part of the pact? I'm also thinking of bringing in Takeo Namudzu; he has a hard path to tread and needs all the aid I can give him."

"I – I would be honoured" said Jaromir. "WHAT a fool Stepanka is! Why, if she had only unlearned and learned instead to respect you and be your friend, she too might have been part of it, mightn't she?"

"She might well" said Jade "I stole substantial numbers of my classmates. I need the allies in Europe if I'm to quietly get revolutionary ideas in progress; and promote fairness in all the Germanic Co-Prosperity Sphere that is at the moment prosperity for Germany and exploitation for everyone else not being exploited by Russia."

"Are we supposed to bring down the Odessa in Russia?" asked Jaromir, daunted.

"Well we'll see about that" said Jade, cautiously "We ARE supposed to get a bunch of would-be rebels ready to fight if need be against its excesses; more than that I'd rather not guess. We've been successful to date; but you know, one step at a time. We WILL be freeing all elves from the compulsion to self punish; you've heard me I think on what has been done to them when I have told you about the fey."

"Yes; and thinking on it, they must feel worse than Bronislava and I do, being made to feel guilty if we do not give in to Stepanka in all things" said Jaromir. "Is the girl Tildi a half elf? And had Herr Gierek forced himself on her?"

"She is an elf who has learned a second form as an animagus does to give her a body in proportion with her head – the natural form of elves before the fey tinkered" said Jade. "Her baby was fathered by an elf – she had little say in it – and Cousin Draco chanted to make his heritance that of Clovis too by changing small Vissy irrevocably to be Clovis' son. She is effectively his wife but most of the people here who would object to that aren't even going to notice, so they should be safe."

oOoOo

Without ado, Jade spoke to Takeo.

He gasped.

"You would invite me in to this to aid my quest for education without unnecessary pain? What can I give in exchange?"

"Takeo, we all give – and take – as is needed. If, as seems possible, I am continuing the fight against the remnants of Odessa, or if other dark wizards like this ruddy lich spring up, times will come when I will need to be loaned power. And if you are fighting prejudice you will need to draw on us. This is what we are for; and why there are so many of us. It was started for Harry, as you have read; but the death of Voldemort did not wipe out injustice and dishonour and dark wizardry. So we are er, many headed and mutable to combat the many headed and mutable darkness. You carry the viewpoint of a different nation; you add to us significantly with that. All is about SHARING; and that is why it is love magic. Love gives without asking anything in exchange; but reciprocal love must of its nature give reciprocally."

"Yes; I see" said Takeo "By existing within the group and doing my utmost I give as well as take; like a family should be on the deepest level."

"Exactly; and you will have the love and support and the feelings of all of us to draw on, to help you decide how far it is proper to go in your own training regime, and where harshness overcomes strictness. I wish you will go to Prince Peak for a year actually; there's going to be a new Comparative Magic teacher there from September, and when you finish school, teaching her about Eastern traditions would pay for your own advanced learning of further chanting and sundry other things; music and art in magic, say, because that's a long tradition in Japan, isn't it? And I should think you have much to offer in those spheres in theory even if you are not, yourself, gifted in either. And you shall observe my dad who is reckoned very stern; but who knows when to unbend and when to draw a child on rather than driving. It's a lesson he learned hard; so he'll not take it amiss if you ask questions. I have been wondering what your best course should be and now I know."

Takeo bowed.

"I will take your advice as an order; you are most wise, Sensei" he said.

oOoOo

Jade took a few days off towards the end of term because she wanted to be with her family for the Tenth Anniversary celebrations of the killing of Voldemort; and was staggered by the sheer scale of the pilgrimage to Hogwarts of a substantial proportion of the British wizarding world. She enjoyed herself in the private party beforehand and stayed mostly out of the way of the crowds, merely admiring Lydia's calm handling of the whole business in her capacity of Head Girl. And at the concert, she allowed Krait and Lydia to talk her into joining them and Seagh, Mimi and Lilith – Silvina felt too shy – into doing a rendition of 'Walking in the Air' in a rather impromptu performance to fill in time that should have been filled by Celestina Warbeck who had left in a huff over some of the younger elements singing parodies of her songs in the interval; and her remaining slots were hastily filled by the Snapes, the sixth form with 'My Old Man's a Desplincher' and the Weird Sisters who took no huff at any parodies of their songs.

Watching the demonstration quidditch match was fun; the kids of Hogwarts were GOOD! And it was so nice that Gorbrin Malfoy and Jack Murray both laid hands on the snitch simultaneously and gave the wizarding world an excellent display of sportsmanship with shaken hands over the incident; that was one of those things that happened with common consent and good sportsmanship. Even if Gorbrin HAD been proving what a Malfoy showman he could be earlier with a bit of broomsurfing!

Jade did not remain for the dancing at the end of that final day of celebration; but she was glad she had seen the quidditch; Jack Murray had improved no end and she was glad. Well, that was over and doubtless Lydia very glad of it. And fair warning what might happen in nine years from now if Germany wanted a ten year celebration over the death of Gerhardt and Odessa.

With luck they would forget all about him.

oOoOo

All that remained was a blooding.

Jade wrote to the parents of those of the Five who had gone home and asked if they might return a day early to complete a project so she would then have time to help them with it; Beremud had not gone home as the fares were more than his parents could afford, and he was very glad that Jade did spend time with him in the holiday periods; and now to have Bronislava as a friend, she having drifted into friendship with the Five through enthusiasm in chanting and their genuine admiration of her ability to write verse. She and Jaromir did not go home; he was an exam student anyway, but as Jaromir said, with Stepanka gone, it was unlikely that their parents would bother to pick them up even if he was NOT an exam student; and Bronislava would be glad of the company of Beremud if he too would spend many holidays in school.

"And when you are working, why should you not pick up both of them to stay with you?" said Jade.

Jaromir brightened.

"If the lad's parents let him" he said.

"If you work with my Anwalten you'll be in the same home city" said Jade. "They'd be delighted; and would be happy for Broni to stay with them when you're working. It'll be FINE" she added.

Takeo too had not gone home; it was a long way and truth to tell he was happier in school than in the harsh regime of his uncle's Ryukkan.

So, on the last day of the holidays, with the return of the Five – who would henceforth be the Six – Jade ran a blooding ceremony with all who were there, and sundry of her own class she had pulsed to blow in; and knew she was right with the looks of contentment and belonging on the faces of Jaromir and Bronislava; and the look of wonder and new determination on Takeo's face.

"You are my brother now, Takeo" said Zhanargul "And we will none of us let you down as you have been let down before; as I can feel from you now that you think that you have. We will support you and put behind what bad behaviour we have puzzled over in the past."

"It is right to share with siblings" said Takeo; and told again his story of a harsh and loveless upbringing.

"It really is a breeding ground for dark wizards by the sound of it" said Cacilia.

"And Takeo is going to fight that; and we're going to support him" said Jade "And he is a wise man who is not going to run into it bull-headed but is going to learn how to run a good coup under my dad; who has, after all, run a few coups in his time."

"Not least the overthrow of the English ministry" laughed Traudl, who had brought Elfleda back a day early.

"Well that was kind of a self sustaining action once Harry was acclaimed as definitely The Chosen One with all the bells and whistles of winning the war!" laughed Jade. "The ministry had behaved so badly that removing its power to rule was almost inevitable; and what Harry said was taken as law. Still, dad was one of his advisors over what he should say – and what he should NOT" she added soberly. "It was a great responsibility. Well, we do what we have to do; and what I vote we SHOULD do is have another cup of cocoa!"


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

Very little sense was to be had out of the children who were interested in quidditch for the first few days of term in the run up to one of the semi finals; between Poland and Ireland. Most of the Durmstrangers were supporting Poland over a team that was, as Zlatka tactlessly put it, almost English; over which Jade laughed and said that any Englisher would take almost as much exception to that as an Irish fan; only she, as the English representative here, would treat the remark with dignified contempt where an Irish person would pull out all their jinxes and wish the ill luck of the little people on any so ill educated as to so insult the Irish.

"They've been rebelling so long against English influence that most of them have forgotten what the original offences were over" said Jade. "It's why there were no Irish deatheaters; too contrary."

This was reckoned to be a rather significant thing since if the English thought the Irish to be contrary they must be extremely so!

In the event, the Poles won after a close fought match over two days; and Madam Bacsó had bowed to popular desire in the knowledge that no lessons were likely to go in to otherwise occupied minds anyway to permit the school to have wizarding wireless on in the great hall to listen to, on the proviso that they worked instead at the weekend on hastily rescheduled lessons.

It was a popular move, though Jade grumbled that it loused up her own extra classes and dragged her chanters off on Friday evening instead. Her musicians just had to miss a week.

"And half the Polish team are the Cracow Crows so we should see a clean match on THEIR part at the Final" she said with some satisfaction "Since they've run across David Fraser, who is to referee the final, before; when he took the expedient of turning their captain and that of the other team into sheep to stop them drawing wand on each other."

"Isn't that illegal for a ref?" asked Jaromir.

"It's illegal to jinx or curse players even under extreme provocation; raising wand to a player is not permitted" said Jade. "A transfiguration is not a jinx or curse and he did it wordlessly and wandlessly so he never raised wand. It is a casuistry; but he did it to prevent the game being harmed by each hurting the other. And the game WAS over at the time. The argument arose after the snitch had been caught so he was in the clear, and was actually congratulated unofficially for preventing what might have been a nasty incident; because it also stopped the other players and hence the crowd from joining in. Crumbs was last world cup DIRTY! I hope Brazil don't get through; now La Mariposa has left to get married they don't have a demon seeker to make up for their other manifold deficiencies."

"Well we shall find out after the exams when Brazil play Portugal" said Jaromir.

oOoOo

Those chanters who were taking the OWL had been coming to Jade for extra evening lessons as well as joining in the Saturday class and they were distinctly nervous.

"Just do your best" said Jade "Any but Jaromir can re-take if need be; and Jaromir, you can always re-take as an external at Prince Peak. Enjoy it; you'll all be fine. You've participated in harder things helping me with various exclusion lines and engulfing lines; not a problem."

The Chanting OWL practical was to be the first exam and earlier than the rest because Lucius Malfoy was fitting it in around the needs of Prince Peak and Hogwarts.

There were to be twelve entrants for the chanting exam; and Lucius planned to have them chant in two groups. Consequently they were split by age rather than in half, with the seven older ones to chant first, followed by the sequestered fifth formers.

After the ten minutes permitted preparation, which involved for Jade's well drilled group voice loosening exercises for the most part and learning the chant a secondary consideration, the seven sixth formers filed in to the hall and were organised at one end into a circle. Jaromir and Takeo had least tuition, having not belonged to the ECC the year before; but they had worked hard, and Zhanargul, Saula, Jochen and Stiv arranged themselves to be sure and have the less experienced amongst them to support them.

Jade had drilled them all hard; and Jaromir was amazed at how relatively easy he found it to hold the chant to exclude iguanas going for the whole hour. Zhanargul was positively enjoying herself and the others struggled on manfully. It was NOT the blood group helping, Jaromir decided; just that Zhanargul was good at it, and so, apparently, was he; Takeo would have been happier using his own cultural background rather than western rhythm. But if he took it to the higher level, Jade had said that more flexibility was involved there.

And then they might go and take a welcome drink; and it was the turn of Desolina, Gisela, Sigismundus and the Asimov twins.

The twins were old hands at chanting; and were clearly in a different class to the rest, though the others were certainly competent, Sigismundus the weakest perhaps for having come later to it and not having quite the application Jaromir and Takeo had.

And they were all glad to complete that and looking forward with only some trepidation to the written exam that Lucius had translated into German for them.

oOoOo

They sat the chanting written a little early too so that Lucius could collect up their papers and take them into his care locked up until he marked all the papers together; and this they all sat together to take, in the great hall as they would for their other exams, those who were taking them. It suited Agata too, to get the English exam out of the way since it was always tight scheduling the exams of the ZPs and ZHs; and from next year there would too be another exam to add, and Chanting likely to be a permanent fixture too, and hopefully organised by the German Ministry of Education soon with advice from Lucius.

The exam opened with short questions, including the definition of a chant, and the design of short chants to cover given situations, and questions on poetic forms. Then there was an essay question on how the form of a chant in terms of its poetic design might affect it. Takeo enjoyed this, for he was able to talk about his own traditions; and to draw on Arithmancy. As indeed did Jaromir, who was glad he had studied further with Arithmancy and indeed brushed up on his barely-understood ZP level work. Zhanargul wandered into the realms of oral tradition such as was common in her steppe homeland, where tag phrases to further identify some figure or place might add to the power of a chant by drawing on naming magic in its broadest sense. On the whole the entrants did not feel that they had been badly prepared; and if perhaps some of them might have got a higher grade for having studied longer, they were grateful to have studied at all under so skilled a teacher as Jade and to have, on the parts of all but Jaromir, the chance to take it to ZH or NEWT level, depending on what exams were available by next year. And Jaromir swore that he would do his best to study in his own time and take the exam as an external student next year or the year after.

oOoOo

There was one more quidditch match before the other exams were on them; the team played the Heidelburg Harriers, two of whose players were on the German National Team; and not surprisingly the visitors wiped the floor with the school team.

Their attitude was rather sneering and Zhanargul got in some revenge for a broken arm – which had not stopped her playing – by remarking to Jaromir in the hearing of the Harriers Captain, the wizarding wireless reporter and the referee,

"Is it not a strange thing that grown ups can feel so mentally insecure that they need to gloat and sneer and act childishly over a not entirely unexpected win over schoolchildren? They must be very little people mentally that they have such a need to put us down with words; and moreover to take delight in the wounding of any of us. They are very fine quidditch players but one DOES rather see the point of Frau Von Luytens that such is because they have not the intellect or adult approach to do anything else."

"You are correct" said Jaromir "It is in my opinion that they feel secretly afraid that the school team might make a respectable showing against them despite all but me being fifteen and sixteen years old only. I am glad that I have a life and will not have to rely on making my way with quidditch; the game is spoiled by the prima donna theatricals of the terminally otherwise incapable."

The reporter for one was looking thoughtful.

The Captain whipped out his wand and pointed it at both youngsters.

"Have a care" said Jaromir coldly "Threatening a minor like the Princess will end you up in Nurmengard; if you wish to call duel, I however am adult and will meet you whenever and wherever you desire."

"I do so call duel!" hissed the Heidelburg captain.

"As you wish" Jaromir clicked his heels "My seconds will wait upon yours after the meal."

After a brief hesitation, Jaromir picked Jade and Takeo as his seconds. It was required that in an adult duel they be adult themselves; and Takeo had turned seventeen though Zhanargul's birthday, like Jade's was later in the summer. The Heielburg captain had picked his beaters so as Jade remarked to Takeo it might require a hammer to get any words longer than 'game' into their heads since the knowledge of two syllable words not relating to the game were beyond most beaters.

Takeo grinned.

"You are placing again on display your prejudices" he said.

"Why so I am" said Jade.

oOoOo

Madam Bacsó was not happy; and asked Jade if she should ban it.

"That big ape will surely cream Frolik!" she said.

"Y'wanna bet?" said Jade "Jaromir is not the fool his older sister is; he has the tools to win. But I AM going to clarify if the Heidelburg baboon considers unforgivable curses forgivable. I'm too used to German duellists."

Agata flushed.

"We have been over much influenced by Odessa's creed that if you can do something there is no harm in doing so" she said.

oOoOO

Apparently unforgivable curses were not to be used; and the duel began, Jade having laid up the wards for the piste without much input from the Heidelburg seconds who looked vague about what to do.

"They really HAVE had their brains exploded by bludger" said Jade to Takeo "You'll need to understand this if you're running a ryukkan, so watch and learn."

Takeo nodded; he was eager to learn all he could from Jade in the short time he had left with her. He had accepted her as his Sensei; and though the tem was translated as teacher it was much deeper than that. The nearest a westerner of modern times might come to understanding it was through the relationship of a trainee Jedi to his master; for it was a term of profound respect.

oOoOo

Jaromir had seen Jade duelling; and he decided to take a leaf out of her book. He let the Heidelburger lead off with a series of jinxes so he might demonstrate his own imperturbable shield and drive the man into increased frustration; then let fly with a series of nuisance level jinxes in such complex combination that many of them got through, especially as Jaromir almost bust a gut to cast some with his left hand without wand just to confuse the man. He managed to get the green reductonunculous curse past the man's guard, leaving him green and covered with exploding pustules; it had been a curse invented by Jochen for the ZP the previous year combining the avocado curse, the jellied furnunculous curse and the reductor curse that was at least less devastating in its effect than when cast on its own when it blasted things into dust. The captain was reacting to this with horror when Jaromir casually, wordlessly and wandlessly, cast _expelliarmus_ and his opponent's wand went flying.

"Are you ready to give in?" asked Jaromir courteously.

"_Accio wand!_" roared the big German "_Crucio!_"

Jaromir waved the cruciatus curse to one side with his shield charm.

"Now THAT broke the rules and is just even ruder than your childish gloating on the pitch" said Jaromir calmly, glad that he had learned to take anything Stepanka could throw without seeming at all moved. He combined the disarming charm with the reductor charm; and this time as the Heidelburger's wand flew from his hand it shattered into its component pieces of dust; a hard spell to cast on an enchanted item but he had made Jaromir irritated. Then he cast an elegant combination of the hoisting curse, the tarantallega curse, langlock and the tickling curse and left his opponent dangling from one ankle dancing on a non existent dance floor, silenced and squirming while tears ran from his eyes at the effort of trying to get helpless giggles past a well glued tongue. "May I have the count, please?" he added.

The Wizarding Wireless reporter was acting as referee and reporting live simultaneously; and he gave the count.

"Herr Frolik, the duel is yours; I trust honour is satisfied" he said.

Jaromir clicked his heels.

"I am satisfied to have shown that my words about the incompetence of this fellow outside of his skill at quidditch and in terms of having a life are indeed justified" he said. "To gloat over winning a national or international tournament, that is understandable if still a little _niculturny;_ to gloat over creaming schoolchildren on a team of which I am the only one over seventeen, that is babyish. And to demand satisfaction because children think him babyish is even more so" he added.

Jaromir was approached by a visitor as he walked away.

"Young man, are you taking the Dark Arts exam at ZH?" he asked.

"I am" said Jaromir.

"Then if you will permit I shall take this duel of yours into account as part of the exam" said the man "I am the examiner; and as you have to demonstrate advanced curses I must say I am extremely impressed."

Jaromir shrugged.

"It is no more than the ZP students will be showing, sir; I did not wish to use any really devastating magic on him because it's not quite the done thing to kill a national player unless he actually tried to kill me first. I held the mirror charm to the ready in case he forgot himself and cast the killing curse; but then he would have killed himself. Which being so I did not cast the reductor charm on him, but on his wand."

"And whilst disarming him, in midair, overcoming its enchantment; a magnificent and subtle display!" said the examiner. "Dear me, Frau Von Luytens HAS made a difference to her pupils in just a year; a very different standard!"

"The Schrempf was a bit inadequate" said Jaromir. "Here IS Frau Von Luytens."

"Herr Bergen, you should not be talking to your candidates ahead of time" said Jade.

"I wished to use his duel as part of the exam; for the most complex curse he knows" said Herr Bergen.

"Oh he's way beyond the nursery stuff you have to use on half wits so as not to accidentally kill them" said Jade airily, irritating yet further the Heidelberg captain who, dangling and dancing nearby could not help but overhear. Herr Bergen chuckled.

"Yes, I recall examining him and finding him rather limited in his time" he said. "He is at least good at quidditch and so is not an entirely useless object."

"Oh quite so" said Jade "But permit Jaromir to show his virtuosity in the exam; you after all can let him demonstrate on one of your prisoners if you prefer him not to use you as an exemplar."

"You WOULD prefer not to have me use you as an exemplar" said Jaromir. "Though I shan't go to extreme lengths just to demonstrate."

"Dear me, I quite look forward to a lot more ingenuity!" said Herr Bergen happily. "I have four goblin volunteers ready to lose six months from their sentence for each curse used on them, one for each student. The prison authorities were willing to comply with your idea, Frau Von Luytens on the proviso that they should veto such volunteers as they thought ought not to have shortened sentences; those who might readily re-offend with serious crimes."

"A reasonable caveat" said Jade "A thief is a man one could permit to walk the streets again even if a bit likely to be a recidivist; but a rape-murderer of children is NOT someone whose sentence you wish to reduce."

oOoOo

And then the exams were under way.

And with the match and the duel Jaromir had very little time to be nervous about the Arithmancy exam; which was four hours of sheer hard work. It was a lot easier than he had feared; and though he knew there were those questions on which a top grade student might do better he felt he had done well enough. Unless he was fooling himself he had actually done fairly well; and when he asked hesitantly for a post mortem afterwards with Jade and Katarina they conferred and assured him that they thought he had an 'E' in the bag.

Jaromir was delighted and went into the Potions exam feeling very happy indeed!

oOoOo

The European system required the brewing of a set potion that required more than one session to brew; and was set beforehand with the head and potions professor required to store the brew between sessions and to certificate that it was all the own work of the student. This year's potion was Mandragora and Jaromir had had no trouble. There was a short practical as well and this required merely the brewing of petrification potion, which as Jaromir added in his notes did not produce true petrification or turning to stone but was rather more akin to the effect of the full body bind spell though the onset of its effects were more gradual and sometimes tempting to issue to first years and be able to watch them gradually grind to a halt in various silly positions like an involuntary musical statues game.

Knowing the Six, so long as they were quickly released they would probably think it cool to see what silly positions they might fetch up in by way of a competition.

The written required quoting Golapott and writing three short essay questions on how one might apply his laws in given circumstances; identifying potions by description and by lists of ingredients; and another short essay on the importance of temperature on ingredients and on potions. Jaromir felt he did quite well to recall that some things had to be kept cool too – ashwinder eggs needed freezing for example, and some love potions became more potent with temperature as well as with time – and hoped he had written enough. Herr Rebet hated accepting students he did not think were likely to get at least an 'E' grade though he did not always have much choice. And with informal discussions in the ECC Jaromir felt well prepared!

oOoOo

Jaromir's next exam was transfigurations; another subject that Jade was so good at, such that post ZH discussion tended to occur in the ECC. Jaromir had no trouble at all writing essays on assimilative correlation, Gamp's Laws and his exceptions and Human Transfiguration. The short questions were simple enough. Though he had to admit, all that discussion in the mornings HAD made it easier; and thought again what a fool Stepanka was not to have joined in more. And then reminded himself that HE had not joined in until Frau Von Luytens had drawn him out enough to realise that he was in need of help.

The practical followed very much a standard form; a conjuration of the candidate's choice and the transfiguration of a choice of a piggy bank, a rock or a fiddle. The standard transfiguration of each tended to follow the level of pass that would be given assuming the transfiguration were successful; piggy bank to pig was A, rock to tortoise was E and fiddle to cat was O. Fiddle to Vulture – geige to geier – was also a transfiguration many considered, using assimilative correlation by nomenclature rather than assimilative correlation by association. Jaromir grinned at the thought that by using association one might turn a fiddle with its hourglass figure and wailing voice into Katte Krätchzen and decided to mention this to the examiner.

The elderly woman said

"Bless my soul!" in some horror and Jaromir beamed.

"Yes, it is a little extreme" he said "So I decided instead to use the English slang term for a violin 'fiddle' and go via the Latin 'Fidel' faithful to turn the violin into a dog."

It was at least a little more interesting than the common solution; and Jaromir felt like being mildly rebellious in this respect.

He produced a handsome Doberman and smiled brightly.

"I have been taught that it is inappropriate to give a creature awareness and then to deprive it of the same" he said "So I shall not turn him back. I'm sorry."

He did not seem in the least bit sorry; and the examiner was most flustered.

She was a little mollified by his conjuration of twenty four red roses; and dismissed him whilst sending out for another violin.

The dog frolicked happily at Jaromir's heels.

oOoOo

His last exam was Dark Arts.

The written covered unforgivable curses, cursing wounds as they were made, the effects of various curses; and also questions on dark creatures including a question on how to summon a dementor. Jaromir absently wrote notes on the summoning of more powerful fey with the rider that the necessary safeguards required were a bit more than a simple patronus.

Jaromir was the first to be examined; which was nice.

He bowed to the examiner and nodded to the four goblins who sat looking nervous on a form by the wall. One of them came over and bowed respectfully.

"Good afternoon" said Jaromir "I am Jaromir Frolik and I appreciate the aid you give me in my exam."

The goblin looked startled.

"You are not required to give your name" said Herr Bergen.

"I am going to be hurting the poor man; it is but courtesy that he knows who causes his pain" said Jaromir.

"I'm Schenik, noble wizard" said the goblin "And I'd appreciate plenty of spells please, 'cos I have a year and a half to run and I dunno how my family is doing wivout me."

"As I have three, that should clear all your time" said Jaromir. "I can offer several curses, Herr Bergen of a most drastic nature – naturally, Schenik I shall reverse them – which are all, in their way equally drastic; one that may give the same effect as being in the same room as a dementor; one that leaves a phobia of water so the victim dies of dehydration – I think that the most horrid myself – and one that causes his body to degenerate as a wasting disease at a speed to be determined at the time of casting. Do you choose or does Schenik?"

"I should like to see the most subtle, the fear of water" said Bergen. Jaromir nodded, got out his wand to level on Schenik and proceeded to pronounce the long and complex curse that involved something beyond confundment. It was a curse that had come up in conversation when Jade was holding forth about the unsubtle nature of unforgivable curses and how there were worse things you could do to people including making them perform self destructive acts by changing their mind set in a way that made the Imperious Curse look like a steam hammer of unsubtlety.

Bergen snapped his fingers for an elf to collect a glass of water; and watched as Schenik screamed and backed away from it when offered the glass.

Jaromir chanted again to reverse the effect.

Schenik snatched the glass and downed it in a gulp.

"You had better bring a carafe for the goblins here, if you please elf" said Jaromir "They will need them."

"A most clever curse" said Bergen. "I see what you mean about the duel being relative child play."

"The best curse is one that the victim does not realise is a curse and so does not go to have it broken, thinking himself merely unlucky" shrugged Jaromir. "The unforgivable curses are so crass."

"I hear Frau Von Luytens in THAT" said Bergen. "No need to make er Schenik wait; if you will demonstrate the Imperious Curse and then the Cruciatus curse on him he is then free to return to the bench to recover and I can write him a certificate of completion of three tasks."

Jaromir made Schenik stand on his hands and box with an invisible opponent and then go to place a slip of paper on the dais and forget about having done so which he demonstrated by cancelling the curse and asking the goblin where he had placed the paper; which Schenik denied having done.

"Good; beyond the scope of the Imperious Curse as it happens" said Bergen dryly "THAT's a twist that unwholesomely clever professor of yours has added."

"Oh, she said that was the speciality use of it by a deatheater called Yaxley and it seemed the most subtle use of it" said Jaromir. "I don't think she realises it's not standard; she does stuff most people can't."

"I'd noticed. Final curse" said Bergen.

Jaromir cast the Cruciatus Curse rather reluctantly on Schenik; and waited for him to fall to the ground with a scream before releasing it; then went to help him.

"Thor's teef, they don't exaggerate abart agony!" gasped the goblin "Fank you kindly young noble wizard" he added as Jaromir put an arm around his shoulders to assist him to rise "And well worf every second ter get home quicker" he added.

"I'm glad it's a fair trade" said Jaromir. "I am sorry to hurt someone I have nothing personal against; that it helps you out too makes me more able to do it."

"You may go and sit down now Schenik" said Bergen "Your compassion is a credit to you Herr Frolik; I don't have any fears that you'll be using the Dark Arts inappropriately. I'm not however supposed to let you fraternise with the prisoners. Simple compassion I can overlook. Will you now demonstrate the killing curse on a rat?"

This Jaromir did without trouble. Then he presented his cursed item for Herr Bergen's perusal.

It was a box.

Bergen opened it; and stared enthralled.

"You should really shut it sir" said Jaromir. With an act of will, Bergen shut the box; and his hand strayed towards it; and fiddled with the catch. "There's nothing in it really" said Jaromir "Except a cursed mirror that reads your thoughts and makes you feel that it is the most fascinating thing in the world. Sort of a reverse boggart. And the fascination stays in your mind so you keep wanting to go back to it. Let me take the box away" he picked it up and Bergen clung to it "As you see, the cursed person does not wish to be away from the box. It's a way of keeping someone effectively prisoner. So long as they have the box present they will eat and drink anything that is brought to them, can take it to the lavatory with them and undertake the normal functions of life; but they will not leave the box. Which can be further cursed not to pass a set line. I think I'm going to have to do a chant to uncurse you sir" he added and proceeded to do so.

"VERY powerful" said Bergen, flustered "I pride myself on my strength of will; and I was getting ready for the fight of my life to be parted from that wretched thing. Handy to put in a treasure room; you'd catch a thief who got in and stop them escaping!"

"So too thought I" said Jaromir. "Have I done, sir?"

"You have; and you may go" said Bergen.

"Sir, if Schenik has finished his sentence through this, depending on his crimes I might be able to offer him rehabilitation and a job after this" said Jaromir. "May I ask you to pass that on and give him the cash to contact me here by owl?"

"I – well I don't see why not" said Bergen "He's a thief; once a locksmith turned burglar."

"Nothing there I can object to" said Jaromir "I'm planning on being a freelance curse breaker; an assistant would be useful."

And it would be something Jade would approve of; to rehabilitate a family man.

Schenik, who was listening with his long goblin ears, was grinning all over his face; he had hoped to get SOME employment on getting out but knew it would not be good or well paid.

Cor, this noble wizard really WAS pretty noble; he'd drawn the long straw on THAT one; as well as having the sense to be the first one to get up because putting things off was pretty stupid.

oOoOo

Herr Bergen spoke to Jade after the exam.

"The Frolik boy is very good; if he had not been compassionate, even towards a goblin, I should have warned you to beware of him; he is imaginative and extremely able."

"Yes; I consider Jaromir Frolik one of my successes in every way" said Jade "I found out what was causing the problems with the Japanese boy too, by the way; next year when you examine him you will find him no worry either. He is very driven but now he is driven to right the wrongs being done in the name of attaining excellence in his own country. How did you find the others? Pedestrian?"

"I am glad you have managed to help him; you were worried last year. Yes, I fear the other ZH students were a trifle pedestrian; Herr Trollkettil however surpasses anything that Schrempf managed to produce and even the two girls were adequate, and may tip into an 'E' grade if their written work is of standard. You need not be ashamed of your efforts."

"Thank you Herr Bergen; I was a little concerned. I have had personality problems with the girls, that naturally I have tried to ignore; and Fraulein Reynoult has found maturity of late. I am glad that Fraulein Leckkessel is no more than pedestrian however because she has the drive and desire that could make her a dark queen if she wished it; I hate to say I am glad she is not a high achiever; but you will understand me?"

"Perfectly, Frau Von Luytens" said Herr Bergen "She will destroy herself before she destroys many others that one; or do wickedness on a petty scale. Sad for those whose path she crosses but ultimately not too bad a thing in the long run. Do you have high hopes of your ZP's however?"

"Fairly" said Jade "The class is of course compulsory to that level so I have my share of those who do as little as possible because they did not want to take it; but on the whole I think I have engaged the interest of most of them to an average pass grade. I have nobody who is totally dire, though a couple hover around the pass mark. You should find a moderately entertaining level of jinxes in their practical; though the ones at the head of the alphabet will spoil you for the rest as they're very ingenious and inventive. The Heidelburg Harrriers got off relatively lightly with the fluorescent fart jinx and a delayed action anal bagpipe curse – I'd have liked to have been a fly on the wall when their farts started playing 'Colonel Bogey' – but I suspect you'll get the full vigour of their childishly scatological imagination."

I'm not sure if I look forward to it or dread it" laughed Bergen. "Those ruddy quidditch players deserved it though; they ARE prima donnas, the boy is quite right!"


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

The Asimov twins enjoyed themselves thoroughly; and the examiner had to endure vomiting farts and slugs both of which fluoresced horribly from Zlatko, and an ingenious twist on the bat bogey hex from Zlatka that was a spider bogey hex which brought forth the victim's bogeys as spiders which promptly wrapped him in spider silk that was green and stringy like the worst sort of bogeys. They next showed their patronuses for bonus marks; The twins were happy to show their patronuses; and like most of Jade's disciples they had wolves. They resisted curses with aplomb and then had the choice of hat, shoes or jewellery to curse.

Zlatka picked the hat to curse and made it read the surface thoughts of the wearer and declare loudly the real thoughts if they were being tactful or lying; a subtle curse and well beyond what was required.

Zlatko chose the shoes to curse and used assimilative correlation – which he should not yet have heard of – to make the tongues speak and declare the precise weight of the wearer, as clever an enchantment as his sister's in its own way.

"I –er, I'm not sure that actually constitutes a cursed item" said Herr Bergen.

"Ask any woman" said Zlatko "You ever know a woman who wants all and sundry to know her weight?"

"Ah, yes, I concede the point" said Herr Bergen. He was beginning to see what Jade had meant about these two spoiling him for the rest!

Especially as he had to call Jade in to uncurse their items which would not desist in their curses with a simple _finite incantatem_.

"I told you they were good" said Jade "They are some of those as I'm sure you found out to have corporeal patronuses too; and I wouldn't put it past Zlatko to know how to raise dementors. When they do a job they do it properly you know!"

"Apparently" said Herr Bergen "Yes, they have good patronuses; not that they need bonus marks, unless they make a mess of the written such might even take them above one hundred percent!"

The rest varied, as Jade had said, in ability; but Herr Bergen was delighted. On the whole they were streets ahead of classes he had tested hitherto; even in Helmut Hesse's time.

The written exam was declared straightforward by the class, even those who considered themselves poor; defining dark creatures and listing signs to recognise them was child's play; Jade had used transfiguration and illusion to acquaint them with a wide number. And recognising jinxes and curses by effects was not hard either.

"FRIEDA could have passed it" said Desolina cheerfully.

Frieda did not care; she was happy to feel confident about the few ZPs she was sitting. She had done well in the practicals of charms and transfigurations, turning in a solid and unexciting but competent performance; and if the written exams had tried her sorely she had managed some kind of essays on the essay questions and was happy about the short questions. She enjoyed the potions exam more, being more short questions and not given to asking for essays; and her draught of peace worked very well. The care of beasts exam too had short questions in the main; and in the practical Frieda shone, cleaning the hooves of flying horses – and pointing out a small problem to the examiner where the nail was growing too far – cleaning out a firecrab, and sorting knarls from hedgehogs. It was over too soon really, thought Frieda.

And next year she was to go to a nice small school to study more about animals and perhaps learn how to use her transfigurations and potions to heal them too.

oOoOo

In the middle of the exams – with, as Zlatko said, the exquisitely bad timing only Brazilian quidditch players could manage – the second semi final of the World Cup was played.

"It isn't really Brazil's fault" said Zlatka "They have to play when the matches are arranged for."

"But scheduled for being during our Arithmancy? I ask you, there's dark wizardry afoot, you mark my words" said Zlatko and refused to be removed from that stance.

Zlatka knew he was joking – mostly – but that having once taken a viewpoint would, without good evidence to the contrary, refuse to budge because Zlatko could be like that; and the Eulenspiegels, who were not involved with exams, decided to build it into a huge conspiracy theory just for fun.

Zlatka sighed and spent time assuring the dimmer elements in their class that of course there was no dark wizardry involved in the World Cup it was only Zlatko throwing a hissy fit because there was a match on that clashed with an exam.

As the dimmer elements were not taking Arithmancy this took some explaining and Zlatka left them wondering whether Zlatko was all there if he thought quidditch matches were arranged to spite him.

Zlatko declared that it was because the International Organisation of Quidditch recognised that he was born to be General Disorder and was able to conceal the double sig rune scars on his forehead; which confused the less able elements even more since only rebels like the Asimovs had listened to Draco's broadcasts ridiculing Gerhardt and Odessa.

His exam did have some knock on effect of course since the great hall was unavailable to listen to wireless broadcasts; so those pupils neither involved in exams nor heartlessly expected to attend lessons clustered round wirelesses in the common rooms.

The match was relatively short as it happened and was over before the Arithmancy; with Portugal's wiry seeker grabbing the snitch.

There were ugly scenes reported afterwards, and the Portuguese team needing to be smuggled out and apparated away from furious and over excited Brazilians who were declaring that Portugal would not have won had La Mariposa been playing and that the result was void because she SHOULD have been playing.

With such specious arguments and brutality from the whole nation it was hardly surprising that the team was inclined to fouls! Jade was even more glad that Brazil was out of the cup; not just for David's sake but because the excitable crowd seemed likely to cause trouble over a loss, and if they lost a World Cup twice running it could get very ugly; and at least the riots were confined in this semi final to Brazil itself and the problem of their own law enforcement. And by all accounts so lost to decorum that they ran shouting about quidditch through muggle streets in Rio de Janeiro, chanting La Mariposa's name!

At least, when Jade checked muggle sources later, the muggle Brazilian authorities did not seem to realise what it was all about, reporting only that some riots had taken place and may be related to a new drug with the streetname 'La Mariposa'.

Honestly!

The news was subsequently broadcast on Wizarding Wireless that in light of this bad behaviour, following the poor behaviour at the previous World Cup, the International Association of Quidditch had banned Brazil from taking part in the next three World Cups after this one; a harsh ban but, as Hassan Mostafa, chairwizard of the Association said, not a decision taken lightly; but one to ensure that no international players currently playing would be likely to be on a Brazilian team when they were permitted back into the league; and that in twelve years time perhaps half a generation would have given the upcoming players the sense to have some control over their fans. He added that if it was not, then the Association might have to take the difficult decision of banning Brazil from ever entering a World Cup.

The riots in Brazil went on; and if anything intensified and Hassan Mostafa was burned in effigy.

The ban was extended to prevent any Brazilian citizen travelling to see any international match since they could not be trusted to behave themselves in public; and elements in Argentina earned themselves a warning for suggesting in the spirit of stirring that Brazilians should have their wands taken away and have no more rights than goblins.

As goblins had been accepted into the Association as players the Brazilian Goblin Rights organisation protested that as the Brazilian goblins had NOT taken part in the riots – well not very many of them – they should not be subject to the same citizenry ban as wizards and witches and should be held up as a shining example.

David, as a prominent member of the IAQ because everyone had heard of him, was later able to report that Mr Mostafa had commented dryly that the only reason the Brazilian goblins had behaved was that there was no profit to be turned in rioting but that it ought to be jolly well investigated since perhaps having their second class citizenry permitted where they were not might have a salutary effect on the wizarding folk of Brazil.

Portugal jumped on the band wagon of goblin rights AND irritating Brazil by offering temporary Portuguese citizenship to any goblin from Brazil as they shared a language so that the IAQ's blanket ban need not be rescinded. This was accepted as an excellent compromise and a number of Brazilian goblins promptly acquired duel citizenship and took the opportunity to move to Europe to establish more permanent citizenship in the hopes of more rights than were to be found in the New World. As there were relatively few goblins in all Hispanic countries this did not create too much of a problem in Portugal which, coming under France's sphere of influence permitted wands to educated goblins and so held hope; and if the racism was endemic, it was less violent.

Most of this was yet to unfold as the children of Durmstrang finished their exams and laid informal bets with each other over whether Poland or Portugal would win the World Cup. Jade laid a few galleons on Poland; though Portugal had beaten last time's semi finalists she did not rate Brazil without La Mariposa; Sueli Silva was an extraordinary athlete and the whole team had been built around her, never a wise move. A team was only as good as its teamplay; and if it fell apart for the loss of one star, that meant the team was not a good one. Bulgaria had been diminished by the loss of Viktor Krumm; but its current low status really had as much to do with the retiring of several experienced players like Ivanova in addition.

The sad news was that Sueli Silva de Garcia – La Mariposa's married name – went into premature labour through her anger at her team's loss and lost her first child; though as Jade said, letting a game affect you so much that it interferes with real life didn't augur well for her being much of a mother anyway.

Jade had the school babies to think of; because Ihor had asked her to come with him in response to a frantic owl message from Zhenga shortly after the newsworthy semi final; and Jade had fed Taryn midwifery potions and used birthing spells and tunes to produce a little girl who Ihor said, rather shyly, he would like to call Nefrina, as a more Ukrainian version of Nefrita. Jade was much touched and murmured that now there were three little girls called after her – Dimsie Burke had written in May that she had birthed a daughter and called her Jade after the best friend she ever had at school – she knew a bit how Harry felt hearing his name in the street and finding it was mothers calling to small boys. She was to be godmother to this child too and promptly adopted Zhenga as a goddaughter too because it was well worth being godmother to accomplished potioneers. Zhenga was looking forward very much to going to Prince Peak and Jade told her that she would arrange for her to meet four little boys and a little girl who were also to go, a human lad and a goblin, who were good friends – Von Frettchen's small brother in law and crony – a human boy who was her father's ward – the youngest Ingate child – and two friends who were goblins whose fathers worked for her – Alrik and Fyra. It would be nice for both Fyra and Zhenga to have another girl they knew; and Fyra was in no wise, as Jade explained firmly, prissy and fancy but as much trouble as any boy as she well knew since she and Alrik had been officially her servants and actually kind of wards as a safeguard for their community. She explained how she had taken the children who had to be written to regularly to prove that no retaliation had been taken against their community; and how she was quietly working on buying out the unpleasant owners of the dire properties.

And she had not been long back at school when Kathleen went into labour; and produced in short order a second son, whom they called Felix because he made them all happy. And Anastasia laughed and said it looked as though she was producing the daughters of the family while Kathleen produced the sons, and wasn't it nice to share each other's offspring.

Orlando was tremendously proud of both his ladies and their offspring.

He was hardly less proud than Ihor; and was sorry that the potions master, who had become a friend over fighting Odessa together, would be leaving. A squib and a muggle wife did not show up so much as a half goblin.

"Fools" rumbled Orlando "People are people; this I have seen. Agata ought to bully them more."

"Agata isn't that keen on goblins herself except cute children" said Jade "She is besides a political animal and knows that now is not the time. Cacilia is to replace Ihor; you will be happy to welcome her, I think, Orlando."

"Not too well I hope" giggled Anastasia "Three's company; four would be a crowd and he only has two arms, one for each of us."

"She is a good and clever girl and I am not attracted to her" boomed Orlando. "She has a feel for animals; not so much as Jade, but a feel nonetheless. I will miss Ihor though."

"Well Durmstrang won't take your kids either so you'll both be doting fathers at Prince Peak" said Jade firmly. "I shall tell dad to institute parent days and have dad races or something."

"What's it worth to forget that idea?" asked Ihor.

Jade grinned.

"You make coffee" she said.

It had been quite a year for babies; small Severin Delaney Prince; Krait pregnant again; Senagra had successfully presented a son to Romulus, who was thus Jade's nephew, and called Hawke Kinat Abraxus after the other New Marauders; Draco had passed on news that Finn had produced him another sister, called Sapphira who was a paler blue than her fey little mother; and Ginny had now surpassed her mother's score with her eighth child, Myrtle Hermione Potter. Then there was Jade Nuffield; and a selection of babes born to Lionel's women and his cousin's wife, four children sharing a birthday through identical conception dates and more to the point using each other to get their labours over and done with together. And Jade also suspected that Lynx was pregnant again too; just one of those feelings that having Marauded together made for a closeness that just knew such things.

Well there were a good selection of schools now for them to choose from; and Hogwarts had been down on numbers from its heyday with the depredations of deatheaters; David Fraser as headmaster could not say that retired marauders were not doing their bit to repopulate the wizarding community and provide future marauders for the school.

oOoOo

Meanwhile, Jaromir received a message for Schenik asking if the job was still on.

Jaromir had spoken to Jade; who had told him crisply that the best way to do this was for her to give him a loan to pay the goblin's wages while he established himself. She had already written to Herr Genaumann and descendants about Jaromir, and had received cautious enthusiasm; and as locals were still wary of the apartment where she had routed the boggart that would be available for him.

Jaromir was delighted; as he said, even if she had not got rid of the creature, boggarts were scarcely any great challenge after all. He met up with Schenik in the local village and arranged that part of his wages would be two rooms in the three room apartment, with his sister and any friends she had to stay to share with Schenik's children; and Schenik's wife Hrosgifu to act as his housekeeper. Schenik almost wept in gratitude. His family was living in one cramped room; which with nine children was not easy. This did include three sets of twins, the last of whom had been born after Schenik had been put in prison; hard for his wife with their next brother barely a year older than the babes. He had never met these little girl twins who at five years old viewed him with deep suspicion, as did the little boy of six; and all this he poured out to Jaromir. Jaromir thought it rather tough that a man should be given a seven year jail sentence for stealing goods to the value of some ten galleons, which is what he had been sent down for. At least his oldest son, now thirteen, recalled his father; and some of the others did too with some encouragement. Jaromir told Schenik that he would see that his children had an education in the school that one of the teachers here was setting up just for goblins and those of less than pure blood; and that they would learn enough, if they cared to work hard enough, to carry wands.

Schenik broke down in tears at this point and Jaromir found that he was looked at most askance for rather awkwardly comforting him; such things did not come readily to a teenage boy who had learned to contain his emotions. He may have been an absent father, but Jaromir reflected that at least the man plainly loved all his children, spoke of wanting to get to know the little ones, had stolen to feed them; and considered him a better man for that than his own father. And he swore silently that he would do all he could to help Jade redress wrongs.

oOoOo

And the end of term was upon them, with a big feast; and Jade felt something of a wrench that she would be leaving the third school she had attended in the wizarding world to found yet another; and was glad that she had the ties of blood kindred here. It would be a while, no doubt, before her own school's pupils would be ready to maraud; downtrodden in the wizarding world, muggleborn and those of dubious blood status and goblins would be drawn from the poorer neighbourhoods and would vary from the downtrodden to the stroppy.

She had to be hugged and kissed by all the little girls who had fagged for her; and have her hand shaken by all the boys; and informed them firmly that it was so hot in here that her eyeballs were sweating rather freely.

She had two more tasks to complete before leaving the castle; one to make a final check on the young unicorn filly she had called Goldmund to make sure that her recovery was now complete; and another grimmer task.

oOoOo

Goldmund ran up to Jade whinnying for treats; and the scar was entirely gone. Jade fed her carrot and fussed her. The lovely young unicorn was tamer than usual; but that could not be helped. And her trust would not be abused by Orlando. And Jade intended visiting her when she might too, and perhaps persuading her to lead a herd one day near Schloss Adler School.

She travelled deeper into the forest in search of a burning ghost; and used finding charms to find Hedda Schrempf still running and endlessly burning. Jade moved into a fey form as an intermediate then reached to touch the screaming ghost that tried to get away. First she dowsed the flame; then gently she pushed, chanting the formula to open the veil and thrust the spirit though it.

Hedda sobbed with relief from the cessation of the burning; and then struggled against the opening of the veil.

"Let go Hedda; take peace" said Jade "You will learn more there; learn to understand; and lose the worst of the anger and desire to lash out. It is a peace gift to you; take it gently or I cannot help but hurt you somewhat."

Hedda still resisted; but Jade was inexorable. Beyond the veil the troubled spirit would finally gain peace; or so Jade hoped.

oOoOo

And then there was nothing more to do at the school; and Jade might check her German properties and see with pleasure that Ruprecht had made an excellent job of getting things sorted out; so now she might just see which of her tenants would go onto the waiting list to come to her school, which were ready to come straight in this September and which she would stretch a point over if they were technically older than the arbitrary cut off point in age that she had imposed.

And she was becoming known; and most of her tenants blessing her for making their lives more comfortable without raising the rent.

There would always be a few who found grumble of course; the building works had been inconvenient, the bathroom was not in the best place, the hot water charm made the water too hot or not hot enough. Jade smiled mildly and said that if her housing did not suit them, doubtless they could get other accommodation from another landlord at similar rent; which stopped the grumblers in their tracks. For similar rent they would never get housing so good.

And Ruprecht too had more news.

"I have another Anwalt for you to replace that slimy creature" he said "He is young and idealistic – he's a year or so older than me, I knew him at school – and he took on the case of a goblin girl who had been raped."

"He lost I suppose because underlings have no autonomy to their bodies?" said Jade cynically.

"No, he won; and therin lies his current problem. He was asked to leave the firm he was working for because their clients made it plain that if he did not, they would take their custom elsewhere; and he had not been able to get any work from humans since. And the goblin community can't pay much. I told him that if he became your personal Anwalt he coud take on such gratis cases as hobby cases that he liked so long as he got your work done too, and the chances were you might even subsidise some. He asked what the catch was" Ruprecht grinned. "I told him about you and he's extremely happy; so I've drafted a contract for him and a letter giving the heave-ho to old Schlange and an order to hand over all your paperwork to this Albricht Kesselring. If you'd sign?"

Jade read everything through before signing; it was her custom and Ruprecht respected her the more for it.

"He's happy to let me give custom to Genaumann and son for the handling of the Neubrandenberg housing?" she asked.

"Oh yes; he intends to liaise with them and it besides gives him more time for hobby cases" said Ruprecht cheerfully. "I think he'll do us very well; now I'm off to see Schlange with a handful of hired goblins to carry all your cases and paperwork because I can't wait to see his face."

"You are a bad boy" said Jade indulgently.

It had been a rather productive year.


End file.
